Brightwell Aquatics Florin Volcanit

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

Here's a quick review of the product so far.
I got 1 25lb bag of the Florin Volcanit Rio Escuro F and one of the XF (Fine / Xtra Fine)
The F is about 3 mm granule size. Color is almost exactly if not exactly the same as Amazonia.
The XF is about 1 mm in size and for the most part both seem to be fairly regular in size - unlike Amazonia which would have a variance in size.

Looking at the bags, I was worried that it wouldn't be enough for my 90P (90 cm x 45 cm footprint).
So I started with a base layer of old amazonia - about a 2.5 Gallon bucket worth. Poured in the F towards the back and then filled up the front with XF. Ended up having a 1/2 bag of volcanit XF left over. 3"-3.5" in the back. 2" in the front. Even though I have some left over, I think if I hadn't used the old Amazonia (Kris's idea) I probably wouldn't have had quite enough substrate in there.

Anyway, I setup the 90P Sunday evening. Planted it with some stems that had been floating around for a week (by now in sad shape). I didn't have the patience to baby the fish / shrimp that had been residing in the tank pre rescape - so I just dumped them all in. Amanos / Taiwan painted / Cherry barbs and some other misc fish. Left the light on to help the plants recuperate and hoped that nothing would die. Typically with Amazonia, the first week is rough. The pH crashes, plants melt etc - before everything takes off. Amazonia also requires a lot of water changes in the first week - tanins etc.

So what's the experience with Volcanit so far?

No pH crash. No tannins. Fish and shrimp are all alive and happy. No water changes.
Plants are showing growth already - including the downoi. Heck even the almost dead Blyxa - which I was going to toss cuz I didn't think it would stand a chance, is actually recovering - I'm seeing new root growth.

How this does in the next few weeks - we'll find out shortly. How it does in the longer term - might be a while.

Bottom line...so far..I like.

[Aaron]

Thanks for the review. I picked up some of the brown one to try out too. Good to know I may need a little boost to get the two bags to fill the 90-P. I've always wanted a brown substrate and I tried Flora Base, but it has the same initial issues as Amazonia and breaks down even faster.

[jweis]

Yes, thanks for the review as well. Amazonia broke down on me and I just had a muddy mess. I switched to EcoComplete, but the plants don't seem to like it. I have Fluval Stratum in some of my other tanks and that does fairly well. I am looking forward to trying this new substrate and seeing how it compares to the Fluval Stratum.

[Jim Miller]

I have mud but cover it with Flourite Black Sand. Although pulling up huge rooted plants produces the expected cloud the FBS seems to let the silt filter back through it in less than a day. Mud is good stuff. Mine came from doing the MTS procedure on some topsoil from the hardware store. Tedious but I still get crazy roots going on three years.

jim

[sns26]

Ghazanfar, when I started my tank 2 years ago with Amazonia, it seemed to leach ammonia for weeks. Are you saying that you laid this new stuff down, filled the tank and (with a mature canister filter) you were good to go? No ammonia spike?

[krisw]

Ghazanfar, when I started my tank 2 years ago with Amazonia, it seemed to leach ammonia for weeks. Are you saying that you laid this new stuff down, filled the tank and (with a mature canister filter) you were good to go? No ammonia spike?

This was my experience as well. According to one of Brightwell's scientists, the black variety does leech a small amount of Ammonia, but even that is orders of magnitude less than Amazonia. The brown variety is virtually zero. So far I'm happy with mine in my 75G, but like Ghazanfar said, it is lighter/less dense, so it may not hold plants down quite as well, but is still within the realm of reason for that purpose, and better than say, SoilMaster Select.

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

Now about 2.5 weeks in. Plants are growing well. The substrate hasn't gotten any less lighter - still easy to blow around. Other than that - so far so good. I'll post a pic of two up soon

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

OK so its been about 8 or 9 weeks since I set up with this new substrate. Things are growing. Algae is finally starting to take a backseat.

Plants are growing but compared to ADA Amazonia, growth is a bit slower. I've been fertilizing since week two.

Not a big fan of how light it is, but overall not a bad option if you're looking to try something new. Plants are rooting well in it and there's nothing that doesn't seem to like it.