Substrate

Just been doing some reading on growing aquatic plants.  Several people suggest not bothering with specially made substrates and just use soil covered with sand or gravel. Sounds good to me, but could you be more specific? What product do you buy from the garden centre exactly? Potting compost?
I presume, seeing as everyone is SO careful when adding wood / stones from nature to the aquarium, that you don't mean go in the garden and dig up some topsoil?
Then again someone mentioned bacteria in the soil keeping the water chemistry stable.
Many thanks if you are able to clarify.

i have a layer of soil in the bottom of my tank which was actualy stolen from my neighbours garden (shhhh  )
he had recently just dug a large section of his flower bed over and never uses in chemicals so i thort would be easier to wait till he went out rather than try to find soil in my weed garden.
my layer of soil is rangeing from half a inch thick to one inch thick at the back on top pf this i have a 3/4 inch layer of sand . the plants i have in are listed as easy plants to grow, they have been in the tank now for almost 3 weeks and i am pleased to say there all seem to be doing well there was some initial loss of leavs and some browning but all seem to be recovering quite nicely now even growing and spreading out .  can highly recomend this method althow is a little tricky when vacuming the tank floor

Thanks everyone, that's great.

Not sure how happy I am to add my garden soil to a tank... Lots of bits of glass, sharp stones, heavy clay, bits of plastic wrapper. I found an old style ring pull while planting potatoes a few weeks back! The joys of inner city living.
Definitely no potting compost then?!? Out of a nice bag?

Actually I'm all for freebies where you can get away with it, I have heather branches soaking in a tub, and stones in a different one, ready to test pH and KH to see if the affect them.

Thanks for your help.
Not got as far as choosing a tank yet, no hurry the sideboard hasn't arrived yet either, so don't need any help choosing plants just yet.

Most potting compost consists almost entirely of organic matter, be it peat or a substitute. Over time, this will decay and break down, not good for your tank. Potting composts also contain far too much fertiliser. John Innes Number 1 would be best, this is a mixture of loam, sand and an organic part, typically peat, but much less of the last than in soil-less compost. No. 1  has less fertiliser than nos. 2 and 3. Alternatively, garden centres do sell bags of sieved top soil, expensive for the garden but I should imagine it would be ideal for an aquarium.

You can also get bags of 'hoticultural grit' from the garden centre too. A couple of quid for about 20Kg, and that'll be a great gravel topping. Just make sure its the rounded sort rather than the sharp sort, and it'll need a good rinse before using it. I use an old plastic sieve - a couple of handfuls of grit in it and a quick rinse from the water butt does the trick.

As for syphoning the gravel... there's really no need. The idea is all the fish poo goes down between the gravel and replenishes the soil substrate as fertiliser would.

If you're not comfortable with the soil route, an alternative option would be to utilise a relatively fine rounded gravel (2-3mm) and enhance/support plant growth through the use of root tabs - if you haven't come across these before they're basically small tablets of fertiliser which you embed into the gravel around the roots of your plants.

This would work out more costly than soil over time as they generally need to be replaced every 6 months or so, but a single tab can usually do up to 1 sq ft and I think you can pick up packs for as little as a fiver so they won't break the bank. If you're brave, you could even make your own but this is a little more risky. 

i try to think of it as borrowing it from the next door neighbour 

i wonder how much i could borrow before he starts to notice 

A few notes from Ms Walstad's previously plugged work. She has a whole chapter on substrates, or to put it more accurately "Soil". She doesn't seem to approve too much of anything else. Soil consists of a mixture of
1 Inorganic matter - This is stuff that comes from shells and skeletons of dead organisms, detritus from food, etc
2 Organic matter - The soft-tissue remains of dead-organisms, leaves fish, roots etc Byproducts like poo.
3 Minerals - Quartz, clay and sand that make up most soils
4 micro-organisms - Bacteria, fungus, yeasts etc. Living organisms.
Given this, item 4 especially, I would suggest that we don't wish it to be sterilised.

In a section tellingly entitled "Chaos in freshly submerged terrestrial soils" Ms W suggests that chemical changes within the first 6-8 weeks are capable of killing your fish and she goes on to suggest at least one large water change after adding soil; And the use of charcoal in the filter until 6-8 weeks.

Soils are apparently always acidic. So be extra vigilant if you live in a soft-water area.

Vacuuming is for cosmetic purposes only, ie if you use sand you may have to hoover up the mess on the top of the sand to prevent it looking dreadful, otherwise, leave well alone.

Set-up the tank dry. In other words put the soil in first, cover it with gravel and then carefully add the water. Once you've done all that, she says you can add fish. This contradicts what she said above, but, what do I know. I only flicked through it, so I probably misunderstood something. Maybe Richard can square the circle.

"EASY" plants aren't necessarily slow growing ones. Sometimes in fact, they are just the opposite. They are plants that require the simplest equipment, basic lighting, no CO₂, basic feeding, simplest substrate, simplest keeper; and require the least 'interference' from the grower.

Don't worry about "disinfecting" the soil or killing off "nasties". As I've said before, any living thing (bacteria etc.) that can harm fish will only be in another fish or in water that contains fish. There is no way that soil can contain anything living that will harm fish.

The recommendation that you use charcoal is only if you suspect the soil may contain pesticides or something.
The idea that fresh soil can kill fish only comes in one of Walstad's Q and A sections where someone writes "I put soil into my new pond and all the fish died. Is there any way to prevent this?". Yes, if you threw a load of soil into the bottom of a tank with fish in you too might have problems! But if you set up the tank properly, with a layer of soil topped off with a layer of gravel or sand, then go through the normal cycle process, everything will be well settled down by the time you add fish. One of the ways I differ from Walstad is that she adds fish immediately, I prefer the normal cycle approach, patience is a great virtue in fish keeping.

For easy plants, just look at the Tropica Aquarium Plants site. Select Plants from the menu, then the part marked "The plants demands" then the "Easy" category, it's a very sensible division, anything on that easy list should do well under normal lighting.

I recommend planting the tank before filling with water, it's much easier than sticking your arm through a full tank of water to try to get a plant to stay in the substrate while the plant is determined to float back up to the top. I put in my layer of soil, then top it off with the sand/gravel and add any rocks, wood etc. Then I put in a couple of inches of warm water which helps to warm up the substrate which might be quite cold. Don't use water from your hot tap though, as it might contain copper from your hot water tank. Then I put in the plants, very easy at this time, and top up with water after planting. Take the usual precautions when adding water, I pour mine onto a saucer on the substrate, and don't forget to thoroughly wash your gravel/sand first to get out all the dusty stuff. Then I just follow the normal ammonia cycle process. The plants will use some of the nitrates produced by the cycle, but you'll still need to do a big water change as usual before adding fish.

I've now set up 11 tanks like this, all with soil from my garden, and have had no problems at all.