Aquario Neo Soil No CO2

A pelleted volcanic aquasoil built for low-tech tanks running without CO2 injection.

Plants use CO2 (carbon dioxide) to grow, and “high-tech” planted tanks inject it as a pressurised gas to speed growth up. A low-tech tank skips that equipment and relies on the CO2 that occurs naturally. A substrate is the material covering the tank floor, and an aquasoil is one that actively shapes water chemistry rather than sitting inert.

Aquario Neo Soil No CO2 is a pelleted volcanic aquasoil aimed squarely at low-tech, no-injection setups — the kind of tank where you're relying on the substrate and good husbandry (day-to-day care and maintenance) to keep plants ticking over rather than a pressurised CO2 system.

Aquario markets it as generating a trickle of CO2 within the substrate itself, via bacterial activity in the pellets — that's the manufacturer's marketing language for the mechanism, and we haven't independently verified how it works or how much CO2 it actually contributes; we're passing it on as the stated selling point, not a confirmed fact. What we can say is that as an aquasoil it still does the basics well: buffering (actively holding water chemistry steady), root access for plants, and a substrate bacteria can colonise.

It's a solid pick if you're running a low-tech planted or shrimp-friendly tank and don't want to add a CO2 system, or if you're after an easy substrate upgrade without extra kit. Available in 3L and 8L — this is a genuinely new addition to our range, so if you run it, we'd like to hear how it performs for you.

• Pelleted volcanic aquasoil for low-tech, no-injection planted tanks
• Manufacturer states it generates a trickle of in-substrate CO2 via bacterial activity — mechanism not independently confirmed
• Buffers and feeds roots like our other Neo Soil substrates
• New to the Shrimp Zone range
• Available in 3L and 8L (single grain option)