What Substrate To Use?

[FrankyFish]

HI,
This is my first post to this forum. I have been reading this forum for a while now, and I decided that after 3 longs years of plastic plants , I would like to try the real deal.

Can you guys suggest a gravel size or type? I used pea sized gravel for a while, but when I tried to plant in that (and I followed the directions of my LFS to keep an inch or two of smaller gravel under) It ended up sinking and mixing with years of cleaning I guess. Plants ended up not being able to root themselves.

I would like to strip and redo the flooring of said tank. Its a 35G with 2.3 wpg of fluorescent lighting. I keep only platies and danios in there.

Thanks!

 

[vonjankmon]

I won't speak for substrates I haven't used but Flourite might be an option for you. I've used it in the past for a lightly planted tank and felt it worked out very well. The down side here and the reason I might not recommend it unless you are going to totally empty the tank is that it is very, very, very messy. You'll need to rinse it a lot (we're talking a lot here, prepare for a bit of work) and even then unless you are careful about adding water (put some plates down or something) you'll get cloudy water for a couple of days.

Now normally this isn't an issue with a new tank but since you have an existing tank with fish it could be.

As for planting substrates I haven't used, RedSea makes one called FloraBase and on the more expensive side ADA (http/www.adgshop.com/) makes several different substrates for a planted tank. But again I've never used them so no comment on how they work or how much effort is required in rinsing them or what not.

 

[garuf]

The ada substrates require no washing at all and are widely considered the best you can buy.

 

[SuperColey1]

although it should be pointed out that you can't put fish into the water for 3+ weeks after putting in the ADA AS as it contains ammonia which has to be cycled through first!!!

I don't really think it matters about the under substrate. I have used TetraComplete and Tropica and they both do as well (IMO) On top either sand or the 1-3mm nominal size gravel. the sort that you see for ridiculous prices in P@H. Just look for it elsewhere and you should get it much cheaper.

Andy