The top layer of the substrate is sometimes made only with Aqua Soil while it sometimes consists of separate sections of Aqua Soil and cosmetic sand. One of the purposes of the single use of Aqua Soil is to fill the entire substrate with aquatic plants. With this type of substrate, you can produce the most traditional style of layout in Nature Aquarium by planting different species according to the suitable location  (foreground, mid-ground and background). Trimming of aquatic plants is vital for keeping the Nature Aquarium. Nonetheless, foreground plants is relatively hard to maintain and inadequate trimming of foreground plants can lead to the foreground having an overpowering presence due to excessively thick layer of plants.

As a solution of this problem, the layout technique where cosmetic sand is used in substitution for a part of soil substrate has been developed. This method uses Aqua Soil-Amazonia (with Power Sand and substrate additives under it, when necessary) for the mid-and background where aquatic plants will be planted, and cosmetic sand for the foreground without planting any aquatic plants. Unlike on Aqua Soil-Amazonia rich in organic matters and nitrogen, cosmetic sand is an inorganic material that contains no nutrients and thus aquatic plants will not grow well on it. Cosmetic sand is the substrate material that has been conceived by utilizing these disadvantages as its advantages. Cosmetic sand is now gradually becoming more widely used thanks to its effect of creating natural scenery resembling river bed within the layout. In view of the fact that most of the foreground

plants are sun-loving plants, there are only limited choices of plants if the sunlight shining into the aquarium is blocked by driftwoods/ aquatic plants and the foreground location of a deep tank does not receive enough sunlight. In such circumstance, cosmetic sand is a very useful solution. Furthermore, the use of bright cosmetic sand for the substrate also has an effect of preventing the bottom part of the layout from appearing too dark. When growing foreground aquatic plants on Aqua Soil without using cosmetic sand, it is recommended to lay the normal type of Aqua Soil first and then put a thin layer of the powder type of Aqua Soil on top of it. The finer-grained powder type provides a neater appearance and helps the plants spread their roots steadily to thrive. For small and shallow tanks subjected to lower hydraulic pressure, the substrate can be built using the powder type of Aqua Soil only.