JBL AquaBasis Plus Long-Term Plant Substrate

JBL AquaBasis Plus Long-Term Plant Substrate is a long-term nutrient substrate laid underneath the sand or gravel when a freshwater tank is set up.

Key Features

• It goes at the bottom, under the sand: This is a base layer, not a top layer. Spread it over the base glass and cover it with five or six centimetres of sand or gravel. Put it on top instead and it will cloud the water and feed algae rather than plants.
• Iron and clay, down where roots are: Clay is what holds nutrients in the root zone instead of letting them wash out into the water in the first month, and iron is the nutrient that keeps red plants red.
• JBL rate it for up to five years: A base layer is laid once and then left alone for the life of the layout, so longevity is the thing that actually matters. JBL's figure for this one is up to five years of supply.
• Feeds plants rather than algae: Nutrients held down in the substrate are available to roots but largely out of reach of algae, which feed from the water column. Strong plant growth is in itself the best algae control there is.

How A Planted Substrate Is Built

• Bottom layer: the nutrient substrate, spread across the base glass at roughly one to two centimetres.
• On top of it: five or six centimetres of sand or gravel as a cap, which is what keeps the nutrients down in the root zone instead of letting them wash into the water column where algae can reach them.
• Six to eight centimetres in total is what strong rooted growth needs. A two centimetre bed will not hold a stem plant upright.
• Stop the nutrient layer short of the front and side glass if you want a clean line, because it will show through otherwise.
• Undergravel heating cables, if you use them, go underneath the nutrient layer.

When To Use It

• Lay it in an empty, dry tank. There is no tidy way to get a base layer underneath an established bed without stripping the tank out completely.
• Plant into the capping sand or gravel, not down into the nutrient layer, so you are not dragging it up into the water every time.
• Expect to carry on dosing a liquid fertiliser as well. A root feed does nothing for plants that take their nutrients through their leaves, which includes mosses, ferns and anything tied onto wood.
• If your tank is already running and you want to add root nutrition, push root tabs into the bed instead. That is the practical answer for an established layout.

Good To Know

• For freshwater planted tanks only.
• Five years is JBL's own figure and it assumes the bed is left undisturbed. A layout that gets dug over and replanted repeatedly will not get there.
• FloraPol is the concentrated version of the same idea and normally works out cheaper for a given tank. Tell us your tank's length and width and we will work out which makes more sense and how much you need.
• Pack size is worth confirming before you order, so ask us and we will check what is in stock.