Good All Round Substrate

[BigIan]

How do been a while since i`ve been on here,
I`m planning to re arrange my tank, into a low maintenance set up with mostly crypts, swords and Anubis,
the mrs has told me she wants corys,
as said this will be a low maintenace tank with relativly slow growing undemanding plants, however i want my crypts and swords to do well,

can any one recomend an All in one substrate that won`t mess with my water quality but will be able to supply my plants with what they need?

thanks in advance

 

[nmonks]

Your problem is that what plants want isn't necessarily what Corydoras catfish want. To see Corydoras at their best, you want plain vanilla smooth silica sand. From the garden centre this costs around £3-4 for a 25 kg bag. But this contains almost no nutrients. While the plants will root in it very well, you may want to add fertiliser pellets into the roots as well as adding whatever monthly extra plant nutrients you normally use.

Personally, I'm super-low-tech and use ordinary pond soil mixed with gravel at the bottom, and then a gravel tidy, and then a layer of silica sand. Costs next to nothing, and provides a good substrate for several years' worth of growth. I hardly even bother with liquid fertilisers, and only use them if the plants look a bit yellow. Otherwise, just leave them be, much as you would a houseplant or hanging basket.

Since Anubias get their nutrients from the water, it couldn't matter less what type of substrate you use. I've always found hardy Cryptocoryne do well in those pots with rock wool, especially if you throw some fertiliser pellets into the stuff every couple of months. But because slow-growing plants tend to become algae-magnets, I'd recommend adding some fast-growing species into your mix. Floating plants are a good choice if you're going down the low-maintenance route. Again, they don't care about the substrate. If you stuck with floating plants and epiphytes (Anubias, Java fern, Java moss, and Bolbitis) you could minimise the use of substrate down to just an inch of sand for the Corydoras to play in!

And yes, it is ALWAYS worth keeping catfish with sand. Until you've kept Corydoras in a tank with sand, you've never kept them right! They're much more fun to watch as they spew the sand out of their gills, and their whiskers grow lovely and long.

Cheers, Neale

 

[AdAndrews]

I would cap tropica substrate with the silica sand, thus suited for both purposes, but everyone knows corys like to dig, and this can cause cloudiness if the tropica aubstrate(as will any clay based substrate) is disturbed. You can also get a fine substrate, i use oliver knotts nature soil(fine) but i appreciate you may not want to be spending that sort of money.

 

[BigIan]

thank ye mr monks, And i do know what you mean about the corys, in the sand especially when you pop some blood worm in and they get there faces buried searching for them,

do the plant pellets actually work? I`ve heard very mixed reviews about them, and if so what would you recommend?

you`ve got me wanting to go all dianna walstead with the pond soil, however i just don`t have the energy to play with anything like that, i really want something that can look good with only a couple of hours work a week

thanks people

 

[nmonks]

Yes, the plant fertiliser pellets can work rather well. Depends on the plants. My feeling is they're particularly good when used with slow-growing plants such as potted Crypts. There is variation in quality, I'm sure, so tracking down a good, reliable brand will probably be worthwhile.

I don't see how pond soil adds anything to the workload. Once set up, that's it! Any work in planted tanks is more to do with pruning than the substrate. Melanoides snails keep sand very clean, and if you use a gravel tidy, there will be minimal mixing of the two layers.

There's a small photo of one of my very low tech planted tanks on my web site, a freshwater "reef" tank designed for invertebrates rather than fish. Lots of plants, minimal work. The windowsill tank was put together for a different reason, to use sunlight, but the substrate is the same and as you can see, plant growth is rampant.

Cheers, Neale

 

[BigIan]

hmm very interesting, i think the pellets are the way to go,

i am very tempted with setting up a small nano tank and having a play with various methods, however at the moment funds won`t allow me to do that

thanks for your help, Mr monks i shal uppdate with pics, when i get around to sorting out the tank