Plant Base Layer Under Sand/grave?

I'm setting up new 260l tank, i intend (at present) to put substrate of Pool sand and small gravel and then add a good few easy low light plants, should i consider putting a base layer of some sort under planted area a fertalised base maybe? and if so, what would you recommend,

AM

I'll be using the Pond Compost method too. I'm also going to use windbreak netting over it. as in that link I sent you (I got 2m of it off ebay, and it came this morning)

Is the 'red' sand that you are going to use the stuff from Maidenhead? They have some tan/dusky stuff that lovs really good.

Hi all, bit worried that the aquatic pond compost might bump up my Ph? as i am very high/hard water already, and it would need to be well covered i imagine (netting as you say NM) otherwise very muddy water maybe?. iv'e got 25kg of Pool Silica sand, it's a beautiful colour, very ochre yellow sand with black/brown specs in, lovely. i was going to have that in main front three quarters of tank and have gravel on top at the back with large rocks/pebbles as a bit of a divider come barrier. 

I recently switched from a gravel tank to a planted tank with a soil substrate. I used John Innes compost no 1 for the soil layer and Arthur Bowers lime free silver sand for the top layer. About an inch of each layer. I had no problem with water being muddy. The switch took me one day and I have put all my fish back in the tank in the evening of the same day. A few bits of soil/compost have floated up, but didn't make the water muddy. I did make sure that the sand is very well washed as I didn't want a cloudy water. If you are not in a hurry to put in fish and need to cycle the tank etc, then I'm sure any cloudiness will clear by the time you are ready to introduce fish. My tap water pH is 8.2 and after switching to soil substrate it went down to 7.4 and it's stable at this level. Your water parameters will be different, but the switch worked well for me.

Thanks all, yes i thought the lime content of some composts would raise the Ph, but if yours has lowered Pawel that's good, as mine is 7.6 and 8.2 on the high reading. I pressume the feeding ability or nutrients  of the soil base will leach away after a while, so is it any better than say gravel in the long run?

Soil will be better than gravel in the long run because of nutrient binding, which basically means that plant nutrients bind to the surface of soil particles and hence are available to plant roots. Because the particles in soil or soil-based compost are much smaller than sand, let alone gravel, they have a much higher surface area and hence much higher binding capacity. In this way, nutrients from the water are constantly replenished in the substrate. Of course, if you are an obsessive gravel vacuumer, there will be less of these nutrients available as they largely come from breakdown of mulm (fish poo etc.)

Soil in general is a much friendlier substrate for plants  than sand or gravel. I've surveyed a lot of water-filled former sand and gravel quarries and you never find plants growing in the bare sand or gravel, only in areas where silt has accumulated. That seems to suggest something to me!

Will have a good google of the John Innes range, thanks all, i think a well planted tank is the way to go, infact my 90L looks that nice with plants and decor that i shall probably keep it understocked, don't need lots of fish just a nice balance 

i wouldnt trust anything that is not approved
for aquatic planting a lot of them have ph stabilizers
high nitrate and hi phosphate content i would not recommend
any of the gardening composts only use aquatic approved compost   

  thanks Richard, what do you recomend then, the aquatic pond compost, or innes no 1 or 2 ?

I intend upping the hours of light in this big tank, maybe 9hrs, i dont intend having it more than a third planted, but in the future you never know, so some pond compost or maybe just gravel will do?