My Planted Tank

[mister-t]

was just going to use the sand

 

[Themuleous]

Fair enough

EDIT - I hear the tropica substrate is good if you fancy trying a base layer substrate and its not as expensive as EC as you dont need so much.

 

[dasmall1]

They are plenty of great substrates available and many things you may never have thought of that add up very cheaply. There's always a cheap way to get what you want. I have figured a lot of tricks with a student's budget. Where do you live?