Substrate

[skki3330]

Hi all as you can see in a newbie to the forum but not quite a newbie to keeping fish. Anyway planted tanks are a new thing for me so just a quick question, i have 200ltr tank and want to start a low tech/low cost planted tank, ive been reading a lil into using cat litter as substrate and quite like the idea of this but im not to keen on the look and really wanted a sand finish so would it be ok to top off the kitty litter with a few inchs or sand?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

That'a fine to do, only thing is with sand it doesn't allow very much water flow through it so using cat litter under it may not benefit you very much as it will take a long time to enrich it with nutrients. On the other hand tho it will give your plants something to root too as sand doesn't anchor the roots well. There's lots of other alternatives out there which look very natural but if your set on sand it will be ok. Just make sure to give it a deep covering as it can seep through the gaps and you'll end up with a big floaty mess.

 

[angelfishguy]

Cat litter is lighter than sand and eventually it will all become mixed together which i think looks unsightly

 

[skki3330]

Thanks for the input, ok i would like to keep with the sand so what would be the best base togo with it then?

 

[angelmouse]

i have tried cat litter/laterite and eco complete, the plants grew well but always ended up with the substrate looking a mess finally rising above the sand especially as i like to rearange things alot. I have recently been using peat plates underneath the sand. The results have been great, i break large chunks off and place directly under the plants and the roots soon grow into them so i can easily move the plants around attached to the plates, a little bit of peat occasionally breaks free but easy to remove or push back under the sand.
regards Jo

 

[skki3330]

Peat plates.......ok must admit ive never seen them, time for some googling