how much substrate?

[Evaunitone]

For my 20 gallon long planted tank, I was thinking of going with eco-complete for the substrate, but I'm not sure what my other options are. The tank would ultimately hold rams (hopefully) so do I want to use soil / peat as the substrate and then cover that with sand? I'd prefer to have a black substrate, but thats not totally necessary. If I have cories in the tank, would black tahitian moon sand be safe for them? I guess I'm just asking someone to recommend a good substrate that will help to serve as a fert for my plants and not necessitate too much other fertilizers to be added to the water. What ever you recommend could you let me know how much you think I need for a 20 gallon long? Thanks!

 

[Blueiz]

Even if you do used a baked clay substrate- such as fluorite or eco-complete, you will have to supply the fertilizers, the only real nutrient these provide out of the bag is iron. However with that being said, the good thing about them is they will hold nutrients and release them back to the plants as needed.

If you go with sand, it is inert and you will have to fertilize more and possibly use root tabs for root feeding plants.

The moon sand would be safe for the cories.

I have a planted tank with fluorite and one with sand. I just started the one with sand and it seems to be doing fairly well, I dose flourish per the instructions on the bottle in the sand tank and do bi-weekly water changes. Since it is just starting out, I can't say whether I prefer sand over fluorite and I have never used eco-complete. Price wise, I used play sand that was 3 dollars per 50 pounds, it was most def cheaper than the other substrates.

As far as using peat in as a substrate base, something to help you make this determination is, what is your water hardness-ph. If it is already conducive to the rams need then the answer would be no, you don't need it.

 

[Blueiz]

To add, here is a substrate calculator: Substrate Calculator

I aim for at least 3 inches in my planted tanks.

 

[Evaunitone]

I think my pH is probably higher than 7. I would ideally like to have the best substrate for the cheapest price (who wouldn't?). I've read that some planted tanks use soil with sand on top of it. That sounds incredibly messy, but if it works for other people it sounds like it'd be cheaper than buying 60lbs of eco-complete. Or, I suppose I could just grow them in sand and use root tabs and flourish etc. Whatever is best for the plants and most cost effective is what I want to do. There are so many options..

 

[mfdrookie516]

pfs with root tabs works great... thats what ive got in my two planted tanks and couldnt be happier. at $1.99 for a 50lb bag, the pfs was definately the cheapest bang for my buck