Substrate For Plants

[BenVernon]

Can someone link me to some substrate or dirt which I can put under an inch of gravel in order to help my plants grow. It needs to be aquarium friendly and not alter the water chemistry. Also, it needs to be affordable (I live in the UK). Thanks. 

 

[elmo666]

Tetra complete is my current media, underneath approximately three inches of a clay type substrate. I wouldn't advise a gravel depth of only 1" tho, if you intend gravel cleaning, as you'll probably disturb the plant media. If your doing a "proper" planted tank then you won't be gravel cleaning. In my new tank I've gone for Aquagro nutra soil. Its a clay based product packed with slow release nutrients. Three initial downsides unfortunately. 1. Cost, £40 for 10ltr.
2. Cost me £120 for my 4' tank. Initially it leaches ammonia so there is a maturing period. I did a sort of mini fishless cycle.
3. It states it doesn't need to be rinsed... It does. I have a fine brown dust covering plant leaves and decor, tho I did disturb it alot during set up. I've been advised plants grow very well and it doesn't negatively impact on water quality after initial set up

 

[TwoTankAmin]

A few of us believe more in building up mulm and occasional substrate fertilizing. Its cheap, easy and lets you pick any substrate at all that you like. I am also a big fan of putting a bit of laterite in the bottom inch of my substrate'. (it is not expensive).

 

[bluesword23516]

Can you put organic potting soil (no fertilizers) in the aquarium? 

 

[DreamertK]

  God no on the gardening soil.
 
Well you can, but you better not have any plants or fish in that aquarium. There are a few tutorials online for it, but its very unsightly so I wouldn't reccomend it. Those fertilizers use Nitrogen from ammonia (NH3) and many fertilizers have "extra" chemicals added into it which are toxic to aquatic life.

 

[Alasse]

I have use organic potting mix, but you have to be extremely careful there are no additives. Honestly it is messy and not worth the hassle
 
I use propagating sand now (you do not wash it), add some laterite, and the barest sprinkle of blood & bone, and then cap it with either washed propagating sand or coarse river sand, works a treat

 

[shrimply]

I used topsoil in my tank with no bother, I mixed JBL Florapol through it and topped with fine gravel.
 
Journal here - http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/301340-darrens-disaster-journal-homeland/
Take away message it works, and well, but I got lazy. The tank is still going strong today with the same substrate and is decently planted although much more low tech.
 
The JBL Florapol is a combination of clay and nutrients - clay is good it absorbs nutrients when they are in excess and releases them when they are in short supply.
 
For my next project I'm taking the same approach but on the cheap(ish).  I'm again going to use a layer of topsoil, through it I'm going to mix Osmocote, which is a standard slow release garden fertiliser and also some Tesco clay cat litter ( combined these will achieve the same effect as the Florapol but at half the price) and I'm going to top it odd with the cat litter too, as it's cheap and I like the colour.

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

I'm using laterite (lateritic soil) under gravel to grow Barclaya longifolia plantlets.

 

[BenVernon]

I went out and got myself some TetraPlant Complete Substrate which will do the job just fine. Thanks for all of the help.