Gravel Substrate - How Deep?

[Schmill]

Hi,

Hopefully someone is around this evening. I am currently washing my way through several bags of gravel before putting it into my new tank as a substrate.
I've done 2 bags at the moment and thats giving me a depth of 1.5" a the front sloping to about 2.5" at the back. I have a third bag but am unsure on whether to wash it and add it or not.
I will be having live plants in this tropical tank so I'm thinking maybe the extra gravel would be a good idea as a root base for them, but I'm unsure.

Any thoughts, I don't really know how deep it should be. In my 60L tank the gravel bed goes from about 2" to 3" slope, and as this is a bigger tank 300L I tempted to just put the extra gravel in.

Thoughts? (although I may have already now answered myself! - lol)

 

[drobbyb]

With plants you want to go pretty deep but not to exceed 4 inches of depth. On a side note: If you are growing plants with only gravel you will need to use root tabs. They aren't too pricey if I remember correctly and they do a great job.

 

[Schmill]

Many thanks, back to the sink I go with my bucket then

Yeah, I have some JBL clay balls that I use in my current 60L tank and these supposedly contain everything the plants need. As a side note, I'm presuming that as I am actually putting 'muck' into the gravel, when I do my water changes and gravel vac, I shouldn't disturb the gravel too much?

 

[drobbyb]

Just be careful to stay away from the roots and those clay balls.