Best substrate for planted aquarium?

[octanejunkie]

While our tank is still cycling, I am considering changing the substrate, which is currently GloGravel.

We have 3 live plants, one plastic and a faux coral structure. The plans are not staying down without being weighted and I was wondering about going to fine gravel or sand allowing the plants to actually root. I found this substrate on amazon and like the black bottom look.

In the future, we would like to add shrimp, and possibly more plants. Would this be a suitable substrate for our goals, AND, how/when should we change the substrate from marble gravel to sand/soil or fine gravel - don't want to upset the ecosystem too much (or start over at the expense of the fish and plants).

Appreciate the advice and experience here.

 

[Mebbid]

That's the same substrate I am planning to use for my 10g planted tank but I was going to use the fine grained version of it. That should work just fine for you and will work great for shrimp as well.

To change over just pull out all of the fish, plants, and decorations after thoroughly washing the new substrate. Scoop the old substrate out with a scooping implement of some sort. Add the new substrate and do a water change or 2 with appropriately temped water to take care of the cloudiness. Then acclimate your fish as if you had just bought them from the store.

You might experience a mini cycle when you switch over so keep an eye on parameters.

 

[octanejunkie]

Thanks for the reply!

One of the nice things about rhis substrate is no rinsing! Unless I lnked to the wrong product, this is more lke a soil, and according to reviews I've read, doesn't cloud.

Wondering if I should even remove the gravel that's in there now or just bed right over it... I'm concerned about keeping my bacteria colony intact.

I do wonder about vacuuming in the future, will this substrate be easily pulled up?

Anyone out there with firsthand experience?

 

[Mebbid]

Just pull the old substrate out. As long as you don't change your filter than 90% of the BB is going to be in the filter. The rest will be located on your substrate and tank walls. It shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 days for the BB to get repopulated.

 

[octanejunkie]

Just pull the old substrate out. As long as you don't change your filter than 90% of the BB is going to be in the filter. The rest will be located on your substrate and tank walls. It shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 days for the BB to get repopulated.

Cool

I think I'll wait for my tank to finish cycling

 

[jefferzbooboo]

How to Change Out Your Substrate - Aquarium Advice

 

[Lynx99]

I like the black substrate in a tank. I too am going down the root of live plants and might change my substrate too.

 

[octanejunkie]

How to Change Out Your Substrate - Aquarium Advice

Good link. The article seems to overlook some things but does address some of the concerns and a few methods for accomplishing a "live" substrate change.

jefferzbooboo!

In my case, a small 6-gal tall/round tank, I will need to remove EVERYTHING. So my questions are as follows:
1) to get plants to root, how deep should the substrate be?
-Anacharis, micro sword and possibly soon a banana plant or something else small
-separate strands of micro sword and anacharis, plant each individually?
2) without a spare tank I have to either bag or bucket my 3 neon tetras:
-separate or together, and for how long?
3) my plants are weighted down with lead strips wrapped around them:
-remove the lead weights immediately?
4) I have 1 plastic plant with a base, should I embed the base into the substrate or leave loose on top for some reason?
5) I have a faux coral rock structure, should I embed the base into the substrate or leave loose on top for some reason?

Thanks in advance, sorry for pedantic (and overly specific) questions

 

[octanejunkie]

Just got my 20# of CaribSea Eco-Complete Planted, Black. It comes pre-moistened in bio-starting fluid.

After reading the bag, I might wait on deploying this in our current tank and opt to setup a new tank using this substrate so see if it really can jumpstart the ecosystem as it claims:

Eco-Complete™ has highly porous spherical grains for optimum diffusion performance and contains live Heterotrophic bacteria to rapidly convert fish waste into natural food for your aquatic plants. It establishes a natural biological balance which makes cycling a new aquarium faster and safer.​

The instructions do go on to say that if using in an already established tank one should drain off the fluid the substrate ships in. Not sure if this is a variable I want to introduce into my tank right now while it seems to have stalled mid-cycle, or perhaps this is the jumpstart it needs...

I'm feeling conservative. Anyone with experience out there?

 

[octanejunkie]

No one on AA have any first-hand experience with CaribSea Eco-Complete Planted?

 

[aqua_chem]

It's a different kinda of bacteria. Heterotrophic bacteria eat organic waste products in fish waste, but they don't turn ammonia into nitrate. Those are chemoautotrophic bacteria that naturally build up during cycling. I don't think changing the substrate now would have much of an effect on anything.

 

[octanejunkie]

It's a different kinda of bacteria. Heterotrophic bacteria eat organic waste products in fish waste, but they don't turn ammonia into nitrate. Those are chemoautotrophic bacteria that naturally build up during cycling. I don't think changing the substrate now would have much of an effect on anything.

I guess it won't matter if I drain it or install wet like they recommend, then...

Thanks for the response AC

 

[aqua_chem]

Probably won't make a difference, no. You might get cloudy water if you add it from a bacteria bloom, but it will subside in a few days.

 

[octanejunkie]

Probably won't make a difference, no. You might get cloudy water if you add it from a bacteria bloom, but it will subside in a few days.

Gotcha

 

[octanejunkie]

How do I store any unused Eco Complete properly to keep the included bacteria in the in-bag liquid viable?

 

[aqua_chem]

A ziploc bag works, but as previously mentioned, the bacteria is largely a temporary gimmick.

 

[octanejunkie]

Thanks for quick reply AC!

I am thinking about using EC to bed under Shrimp Sand to build depth and structure.

Any risk of the SS being displaced and ending up mixed in with or underneath the EC?

 

[jetajockey]

A ziploc bag works, but as previously mentioned, the bacteria is largely a temporary gimmick.

Yup. Go get a shovel full of dirt outside, it's a rich and complex source of heterotrophic bacteria also lol.

 

[aqua_chem]

This stuff? Why are you wanting to mix substrates? I'm pretty sure it beats EC hands down.

To answer your question, I would give it a high probability of getting all mixed up. The finer grained substrate ends up on the bottom.

 

[aqua_chem]

Yup. Go get a shovel full of dirt outside, it's a rich and complex source of heterotrophic bacteria also lol.

All aquarium substrate is rich in heterotrophic bacteria after a few months if there's food for it. EC just gives it a head start.