Substrate

[Justaerin]

Hi all

I'm soon to be venturing into the world of low tech planting and I was wondering what your preferred substrate is for planting and why?

Thanks

 

[minnnt]

There are a wide range of substrates available, personal preference will be the key in your situation as you are planning a low tech tank.

You could go with sand or gravel, but then you could go a little more up market and go with a proper planted substrate such as flora base etc. Sand is probably the easiest to plant in imo, but gravel is hardly hard either. I like Cat Litter personally. It has to be the moler clay type and it will hold on to any excess nutrients that are in the water and eventually begin to feed the root systems of the plants.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Florabase for me, easy to plant, comes in different grain sizes, softens water, very porous, nutrient rich and come in brown and black, expensive tho.

 

[Justaerin]

I've been looking at that ada stuff but its expensive like, doesn't help that I've no idea how much I need

 

[minnnt]

Shamelessly stolen from James Planted Tank site...

As a rough guide to how much you need to buy use this formula:
Width of tank (cm) x length of tank (cm) x thickness of substrate required (cm) / 1000
This will give you the volume of substrate in litres.

 

[Justaerin]

Thanks for that minnnt, all the calculators I've seen give me it in lbs...

 

[minnnt]

You're welcome!

 

[Justaerin]

According to that I need about 14.4 litres of substrate. This could prove expensive

 

[LeopardPerch]

Try to put dirt under the gravel
Search up "how to dirt a tank" on YouTube on DustinFishtanks, an awesome channel.

 

[Justaerin]

I opted to just plant 60% so only need 9 litres. Have got some of the ada stuff coming tomorrow