CaribSea Eco-Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate, Live Bacteria & Mineral-Rich, Black

If you're new to an aquarium and wondering what substrate to get, this will be your best value for a decent substrate. There's no rinsing required, but you can rinse it if you want to avoid your tank being black for the first few days. If you're making a planted aquarium, you will need root tabs for fertilizer if you want your plants to grow. Alternatively, you can get organic potting/top soil and place it on the bottom layer then cover it with this. Using soil will make the tank messy, so you might not want that. ADA, Ultum, or NeoSoil are expensive, but they come fertilized. This is not 20lbs as you can see from the two bags I weighed. It also comes moist with beneficial bacteria.

Just as they said, high quality substrate for aquarium plants. By the way my plants are d going just great.