Is Using JBL Aquaplus Basics With Soft Water A Good Idea

Hooray, new tank delivered. 

I have used this substrate, but have hard water (16dh), so I couldn't say how it will affect your soft water.

However, I don't think that you can go far wrong with sand and root tabs, so it may be a safer option for now.

Hopefully one of the members with live plants and soft water will be able to provide more detailed information for you.

 

The substrate won't reduce the hardness of the tank by very much. If your worried about it you could put some in a glass of water for a few days and test the difference it makes.  I doubt you'll detect anything to be honest from what I've read about these substrates.

When you read the article don't panic when they mention a heater cable, it really isn't required. 

Thanks all good article, fcfm, I did lol, littlefish, when you said don't panic when I read the article......that's exactly what I did  seriously though sounds like I might be ok if I don't overdo it, thanks Matt.

Think I need to be brave and get on with it!

I'm sure you can expect more questions soon 

I'm going to echo @Matt. Again. (I seem to be doing that a lot recently!    ). I think it is a good article. Although I won't be changing my substrate, again, any time soon (or ever), I will refer back to the root tab information.

For information, I have Caribsea Eco complete. I had an issue with my tank at first set up, so it inadvertently got washed. By otherwise have been very happy with it. But I used it as a base under gravel and consequently spent nearly 8 years looking at it thinking "there's too much substrate in there". I finally completed a refurb of my tank, and (in sections) removed about 2/3 of my substrate. I then sieved some of what I'd removed and put the small grains back in. I used a 2mm diameter sieve because I wanted it to be close to sand while still reusing the substrate I already had. So now my substrate is approximately 3-4cm deep (it varies due to inhabitant remodeling!) and predominantly the caribsea eco complete because the gravel water generally grains larger than 2mm.

If I was starting from scratch again, I think I would look into one of the sand like complete substrates. Partly because I've decided that I like the dark substrates.

I do also have sand in my tank (a recent addition at the time of the refurbished). But I've used that as decoration and haven't specifically planted anything in it. Where it looks like there are plants in the sand at the edges, there is eco complete underneath. Because smallest grains sink to the bottom, I don't know how long the sand will stay on top. And I've not had sand in my planted tank long enough to know how that might affect the growth. Other than to sympathise with @fcmf at how difficult it can be to get plants to stay in the sand.

thanks again everyone, good to know I'm not doing anything drastically wrong.....yet! I'll go with the thinner layers and see how this goes. And while it's all settling do major fish study so no doubt I'll start stressing over that too and you'll start seeing posts about fish compatibility, but the website you've directed me too is good. I'm keeping a notebook of the ones I think may be suitable so when I get to that stage I'll give you a shout again.

Talk soon 

Something i should have mentioned before... when you add water to the tank you will need to be extremely careful not to disturb the substrate. Sand, as you can imagine, will easily get swooshed away when pouring in water. In your case this would mean disturbing the layers you have built and also adding nutrients to the water column which will cause algae and clouding of the tank.  Avoid at all costs!!

Cool good shout yeah imagine mixing everything wouldn't be good, like the colander idea and I'm a "Total" eater too so that'll work for me!!
When I had fish 30 years ago I never spent as much time looking into things which is probably why things never went that well and I finally gave it up after I'd moved to my first flat, so enjoying actually learning about it properly this time around.
Sand cleaning starts this evening and then putting the rocks and roots in, then onto using Matt's plant brochure to see what I should consider, might even think about buying some plants over the weekend!! Exciting!! (now that I've stopped stressing) 

I forgot to mention that I mix up water and dechlorinator in a bucket, then put the bucket on a tall stool and use a jug to ladle water from the bucket to the tank via the yogurt pot. If you want to do the initial fill with a hose pipe, put the tank end into a plastic bag (if you have any carrier bags)