A good substrate

[Ian M]

Hi I am new to this forum and have a quick question I have 2 tropical tanks a rekord 96 and a rio 125 both community tanks and planted. I am just about to move the tanks and want to change the substrate to something more plant friendly as I have read that gravel is not doing my plants any favours. Please can you point me in the right direction.

Many thanks Ian

 

[zig]

Hi Ian welcome to the forum

There are three main substrates that people would use for planted tanks, ideally you want somewhere between 2-3 inches depth to the substrate. The first one is Eco complete, this is a dark substrate which looks very effective with a dark background, this substrate you would generally use by itself and not it mix with anything else. The second would be Flourite, this is a hardened type clay substrate similar to gravel in appearence, this can be mixed with ordinary gravel or used by itself, i wouldnt recommend you mix more than 50% ordinary gravel with this. The third substrate is Laterite, this is mixed with small grain gravel of a similar size usually 1-3mm.

There are others but those would be the most popular, and it really depends on your budget as to which way you go, some of them can be expensive but all of them are very effective, but they are a one off cost at the end of the day.

Anyway hope that helps.

 

[Lateral Line]

... then there is the substrate that many planted tank owners use - sand.

Most tropical plants come from shallow water rivers and lakes where the substrate is very fine and largely anærobic. The anærobic part can cause problems in a small enclosed eco-system like a tank, so you need to keep the sand open by a bit of "gardening" every now and again. I poke my sand around with a chopstick.

How much poking and how often depends on the sand. I use pool filter sand exclusively now. Itøs very even grain size and shape largely prevents packing and anærobic development, so I only need to poke about occassionally and for a short while.

Silver sand or building sand has a mixture of grain sizes - the small grains fall between the big ones and make for a very solid base. I used to use silver sand, but find the filter sand much better.

Some laterite or similar mineral rich material laid as a slurry under the sand is useful.