Great Idea!

[pinkdolphin_113]

i just had a great idea instead of putting a load of soil under my sand!
i was talking to the muva today about plants and she said they prefer when their roots are really close together. shes been grown plants for like 35 years now bless her.
anyhoo, this made me think. WOA! thinking...and it hurt. if i where to put soil in say a yoghurt pot, put the plant in the soil and then put my sand in the tank covering the rest of the bottom and about 2cms over the yoghurt put, this would be great and my fish can burrow through the sand without me worrying that the water will go cloudy like it does when fish disturb the bottom of lakes and stuff.

now a question... what kind of soil would be the best? would normal soil be fine? or would NPK thingy get to the fish?

 

[three-fingers]

Sounds OK, but i think you would have to re-pot them when they grow out of the yogurt pots. I've read regular soil does work, but i think it would be safer to use aquatic soil used for ponds.

If you don't happen to have that lying around though, you might have to buy a pretty big bag of it which would be a waste. Or you could use any one of these substrates, still pricey for just filling some yogurt pots .

 

[voo]

You can use some peats, george has in his nano journal, but if you dont know what you're doing i think it's a lot safer to go for aquarium substrate.

If you dont want your fish mixing the substrates, get a gravel tidy. I use one. you lay the first substrate, then the tidy, then the top substrate. Stops the fish mixing the 2 layers. I bought mine from a fish shop, was for marine fish. However i've seen the exact same stuff at a garden nursery, where they have huge rolls of bubble wrap and netting they sell by the metre.

 

[JamesC]

Cactus compost works well from your local garden/diy centre. I use it in my tank below the quartz sand. It is best to either boil it for 15 minutes or leave it soaking for 3 weeks before use to get rid of any ammonia.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

ok thanks i think ill go with the catcus substrate as i have just finished putting the sand down.
i currently have 5 bits of java fern on my NEW DRIFT WOOD!! im really pleased on how its turned out. looks alot nicer than it did before. thanks again