http://www.adana.co.jp/en/sc/news/detail/1100
"The characteristic differences in between Aqua Soil Amazonia and competitor's soil products
2012-10-12
ADA's Aqua Soil Amazonia has been popular among many customers all around the world as the best substrate material for aquatic plant layouts and for keeping Red Bee Shrimp. Other companies are selling soil-based substrate materials that are said to be Japanese or from Niigata prefecture. However, the performance of these soil-based substrate materials is not the same as that of Aqua Soil Amazonia.
Aqua Soil Amazonia is made of 100% natural black dirt. The places where pure black dirt can be harvested are quite limited, not only in Niigata, but also in Japan as well. In addition, not all black dirt can be used as the raw material for Aqua Soil Amazonia. Aqua Soil Amazonia has soft particles. In order to produce particles in such a condition, the soil must be heated until moderately hardened. Raw material soil may not harden properly depending on the fineness of organic content of the soil and the volume of sand and clay. Even if it hardens, if it crumbles or dissolves easily in water, it cannot be used as a substrate material. For this reason, the areas in which black soil suitable for mining for the raw material of Aqua Soil Amazonia are quite limited, and the amount of material is limited as well. Therefore, the majority of our competitors' soil products have red soil or yellow soil mixed with black dirt or have other non-black dirt soil as a base with other ingredients mixed in it. Even products with soil from Niigata are not made of 100% natural black dirt like Aqua Soil Amazonia.
Such a difference in the composition or the type of raw material soil shows up clearly in the growth of aquatic plants and the reproduction of Red Bee Shrimp. Aquatic plants grow by consuming nitrogen contained in Aqua Soil Amazonia. Since soil other than black dirt is low in nitrogen content, aquatic plants do not grow as well in the black dirt-based material mixed with other soil or in soil processed from another type of soil. Our Aqua Soil Africana is produced from red soil, and Aqua Soil Malaya is produced from yellow soil. The growth rates of aquatic plants planted in these soil based ADA products are nowhere near that of the plants grown in Aqua Soil Amazonia. This is true with the competitor's soils as well. Additionally, Red Bee Shrimp grow well and healthy by taking up various organic materials and minerals contained in Aqua Soil Amazonia and reproduce well with the influence of organic acids, such as humic acid. These benefits are best seen with Aqua Soil Amazonia because it is made of 100 % black dirt. Even when another soil consists of 50% black dirt, its benefits amount to only half of that of Aqua Soil Amazonia.
Even when the soil is made of Japanese soil or Niigata's soil, the performance may not be as good as that of Aqua Soil Amazonia. We recommend that you choose a product appropriately based on your purpose."
To wyjaśnia dlaczego, w przypadku gdy
podłoże występuje w wersji brązowej i czarnej, to na czarnej rośliny zawsze rosną lepiej. Tak właśnie jest w przypadku podłoża Olivera Knotta i podłoża Aqua Artu.
Ciekawe jest też to, że z tekstu wynika, że tak na prawdę podłoża się nie wzbogaca nawozami, ono je po prostu ma w momencie wydobycia.
