Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tank Plant Advice => Topic started by: Alex_N on January 24, 2016, 11:10:23 AM
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I'm truly confused over substrate that is good to use for a planted aquarium.
Some say sand is fine, some don't, use this size gravel and not this size. A lot of contradictions.
I'll be using John Innes #3 as a base and for the soil mineral values, but what next?
I've even considered just having the compost on its own, but having planned to have foraging inhabitants I have my doubts.
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Compost must be capped off with a layer of substrate, otherwise the nitrogen will leech into the water column.
The rest is down to opinion and personal preference.
I assume you've already considered and dismissed the special substrates designed for planted aquariums, such as those from JBL and Tropica etc. (they are quite expensive!)
In my opinion sand isn't ideal because it doesn't provide enough for plant's roots to anchor into.
I used fine natural gravel and like the look and the plants are doing well.
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I have considered and dismissed them, like you say they are expensive.
I personally would have thought the sand would compact to much and not let the compost breath much. Along with constricting the plants stem growth.
What depth do you have on the gravel and compost? (assuming you use some form of compost)
I was thinking of using a 2:1 ratio in favour of the compost.
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I don't have compost and have been kicking myself since learning of this method.
I use root tabs to enrich the gravel but if I started again I'd use about 20mm of soil with about 30mm of gravel.
There's an article here which you might find useful.
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/the-soil-substrate-or-dirted-planted-tank-a-how-to-guide.18943/
I've posted the part about soil depth and capping substrate depth below:
Soil depth
Well that’s the basic components explained all we need to do now is put them together. Start by placing your slightly moistened soil in the bottom of the tank to a depth of around 2cm, you can slope it up toward the back to 4cm or so if desired.
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Capping substrate
Cap the whole lot with about 3 cm of well washed gravel or sand, sloping to perhaps 4cm – 5cm at the back.
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Just had a quick look and it looks useful.
I'll have a proper read later.
Cheers Simon
:cheers:
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No problem Alex. :cheers:
I hope you're planning on posting photos when you've finished.
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Of course ;D
I'm starting to price it all up now, should be up and cycling in a couple of weeks :)
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Hi Alex
I have compost capped off with sand. My planted tank has been up and running for 13months now without problems other than I got a bit carried away with the number of plants I put in and had to thin them out over time. The Fish were running out of room to swim :o
The reason I choose sand was that I wanted peppered cories and it's ideal for them to dig in with out damaging their barbels/whiskers. As they dig and sift through the sand it trickles out their gills! I also have MTS to keep the sand turned over so that it doesn't get compacted/pockets of gas forming. Another way to prevent the sand/ compost from becoming compacted is to put large rocks in first and build the compost/sand around them.
Anne
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I've had my tanks set up with either sand or fine gravel over a soil substrate for more than two years now. I've found that the plants grow MUCH better with the gravel than sand. I think the gravel lets in more air, vital for plant roots, and also the fish poo goes down into it and acts as fertiliser, while it lies on top of sand and has to be vacuumed up. The gravel I use is actually lime-free horticultural grit, which is finer than some of the aquarium gravel I've seen on sale. If I were starting over, I'd always use this rather than sand.
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Thanks for your input Anne and Richard.
I did want cories in mine as well.
I did find a gravel that was very fine at p@h very similar to a sand grain but about 2/3 mm in size. Which I thought was perfect, until I read the reviews, this particular gravel leached it's colouring and clouded the customers tanks. http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/black-aquarium-gravel
Thanks Richard, I'll have a look for your recommendation of gravel.