Substrate

[Schmill]

Hi all,

I'm looking at changing my 300L tank use Roman Black Gravel as a substrate. I'm just wondering as I am changing the substrate is there anythign you would recommend I put under the gravel for the plants benefit?
I have some aquatic compost, (left overs from when I used to have a pond), so I could use that, or anything else that might be recommended?
At the moment I just use JBL clay balls pushed down into the gravel around the bases of plants, and am dosing the watercolumn with ferts, would this do, or should I really be aiming to have some other substrate under the gravel?

At the moment I have no intention of running CO2, but I suppose it's a possibility somewhere in the future.

Thanks!

 

[Truck]

tropica plant substrate 10 litres of it

 

[Schmill]

tropica plant substrate 10 litres of it

Thanks, what depth would that give in a 4' x 18" tank? Also what depth of gravel should I aim to put on top of it to avoid it benig stirred up by corys / plecs etc?

EDIT
No worries about trying to work out substrate depth, I calculated it from a table I found. 5.4L would give 1cm covering in my aquarium (which is what is recommended), so 5L will fall slight short of 1cm, but only by a fraction
Normally I would go for 2 inches of gravel, but that now seems like a lot for the roots to grow through to get down to the TPS, should I go for just 1 inch depth of gravel?

 

[Truck]

2 inches should be ok to make sure, that it doesnt get dug up

 

[Schmill]

Thanks will order the amount I thought I'd need for 2" then, and if it's not quite that deep no worries

 

[iSnail]

According to instructions, they recommend a minimum of 3-4cm (about 1.5") of gravel on top of the plant substrate

 

[mfcphil]

I just bought a couple of bags of Aquagrit

Take a look