Best substrate

[Rosenweiss]

Quick question: can plants grow in normal gravel substrate?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Quick question: can plants grow in normal gravel substrate?

Sure can. Imve been doing it for a year or so with Petco gravel. Going to switch over to peat/sand though. The gravel harbors too much junk for my liking.

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[Rosenweiss]

I don't mind junk. XD I just don't want the expense...

 

[Harveyman]

Normal gravel is what I have in the 29 gallon tank. But I don't have any heavy root feeders in it though.

Edit: Does rotalia feed from its roots?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I don't mind junk. XD I just don't want the expense...

PFS IS $10 FOR 50lbs. A lot cheaper than $20 for 10lbs of Petco gravel.

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[Rosenweiss]

Do any of the following plants count as heavy root feeders: amazon sword, moneywort, red anacharis, spiralis (though it looks just more like straight grass to me)... many of these plants survived in the LFS with just water or water and gravel. Thoughts?

 

[Harveyman]

I'm not an expert by far,so someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think you would be OK with just root tabs. Anacharis I know feeds from the water column anyways.
I'm only looking at fancy substrates because like I said, I like watching plants grow quickly.

Edit: Isn't Spiralis non aquatic?

 

[Rosenweiss]

Oh, okay. =] Thanks much for your help.

Strongly considering the root tabs.

 

[Rosenweiss]

Oh, and one more question: will those plants survive without the root tabs?

 

[Harveyman]

Someone else will have to answer that, i have no real experience with any of those except Anacharius, which would be fine.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Oh, and one more question: will those plants survive without the root tabs?

Not sure what plants you mean, but I've been growing easy to some medium plants without ferts/root tabs for a while. Hard to grow plants need extras like ferts and even co2 from what I've read. Go to plantgeek.net for help too, I'm there everytime I see a new plant I like .

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[Harveyman]

Limpet, any news on your peat mix?

I think I might try to get the ADA aquasoil, it seems that it might work best for what I am trying to accomplish. The guy at the local store says he will try to in touch with ADA, but I am going to look online aswell.

My backup plan I think will be flourite (I found a black version).

 

[Crepe]

I recommend ADA aquasoil...I'm giving Fluval stratum a run right now and IMO it's twice as expensive and just barely as good as Aquasoil. It grows plants great, much better than Eco Comp (which I switched from). No ammonia burst either. But IMO for a new tank and if you're really serious about the planted tank biz go with Aquasoil, turface or sand flourite.

 

[fort384]

Adana-USA.com sells it. I have used itinerary multiple tanks for a few Years with great success.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Limpet, any news on your peat mix?

I think I might try to get the ADA aquasoil, it seems that it might work best for what I am trying to accomplish. The guy at the local store says he will try to in touch with ADA, but I am going to look online aswell.

My backup plan I think will be flourite (I found a black version).

My bad for not getting back .

Peat went in like a dream, with PFS on top, no stir on either and the 4g of peat compressed to 1.5g and all that went into the tank. No doubt about it saving me a big mess and a lot of settling time by pre-soaking it, not to mention total volume into the tank. I put plants and Cardinal Tetras in and gonna wait for a week on the Betta.

Time will tell on growth, but my usual pH of 7.8+ has been brought down to a solid 7.4 and we'll see if it locks in there or drops a bit more.

Here's the link to my EBI build if you want to see some pics:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...val-ebi-with-betta-as-centerpiece-146503.html

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[Harveyman]

Limpet; Very nice setup, you could try replacing the Anacharius with rotalia or a val of some kind.

You used 4 gallons of peat (dry), correct? What is the foot print of the tank, and about how deep is the peat layer?

I might try that, replacing pfs with flourite sand if I can't get hold of the Aquasoil.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Limpet; Very nice setup, you could try replacing the Anacharius with rotalia or a val of some kind.

You used 4 gallons of peat (dry), correct? What is the foot print of the tank, and about how deep is the peat layer?

I might try that, replacing pfs with flourite sand if I can't get hold of the Aquasoil.

Just posted a pic with Vals replacing Anacharis .

Started out as 4g of dry peat, but the final (1.5g wet) was compressed to 1" (except the asymmetrical slope on the front left), then 2" of rinsed PFS over it (1" on left front).

Here's the steps: Drained tank into buckets, I textured the peat the way I wanted it to look on the outside, added sun dried PFS on top slowly so I didn't ruin peat layering till it was level. Total substrate measured about 4.5" high, then added water using plate method till water was about 2" above sand. I let it set for a couple hours to soak into everything, then with my fist slowly pressed everything down till I ended up at 3" total substrate. This took almost 2 hours, but I wanted it packed in good.

Compressed really well and I think the sand/peat layering around the edge looks great. The tank is about 12" square, 14" tall. Besides water in the substrate I calculated total water volume for fish/plants at about 7 to 7.5g, which isn't bad.

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