Planted aquarium dirt type?

[fatfei]

Hi all,

I'm looking to redo a planted aquarium which are mucked up first time around.

I want to know what type of dirt to put at the bottom because there seems to be so many different types I wasn't aware of.

I have a gravel heater then I was going to put the dirt then cap it off with black sand.

I was going to put mollies neon tetra and a pleco in it. (180ltr)

The tank also has a heater an LED jewel light and an external filter.

The position of the tank means it gets a good bit of sunlight midday. My last aquarium my head there had java moss which constantly grew and grew.
So aquarium plants which need a lot of light would be suited.

I was going to put in liquid fertiliser & co² I wasn't going to bother with a co² unit

So what is the best dirt and how deep should it be and how deep should the layer of sand be on top?


Best regards

Fei

 

[ZxC]

0.5" - 1.0" of dirt.

at least 1.5" of sand on top.

Not sure you are going to find a plant that needs LESS light than some java moss...

Which liquid fertilizer where you planning on using? And which carbon source?

 

[fatfei]

0.5" - 1.0" of dirt.

at least 1.5" of sand on top.

Not sure you are going to find a plant that needs LESS light than some java moss...

Which liquid fertilizer where you planning on using? And which carbon source?

Hi zxc,

Thanks for getting back to me. I was going g to get Excel. I have some TNC complete at the moment and some easy-life easycarbo.

Once the sand and dirt are layed, when planting plants should I not breach the the sound barrier when burying the plant?

 

[ZxC]

Try your absolute hardest no to breach the cap at all. Eventually it will be breached causing a mess, so do your best job possible not to break it. Just plant them into the cap of sand, the roots will grow down into the dirt.

When removing plants, get some heavy duty scissors, gently pull up on the plant, insert the scissors underneath the cap and cut the roots. This way you aren't pulling all the crud up from the dirt, the trimmed roots will make it easier to replant and not cause much stress on the plants.

 

[fatfei]

Thank you very much for your help zxc and the tips!

I am going to get Caribsea Eco Complete (a planted aquarium substrate which assists your biological filtration)

Thanks for telling me about planting and not breaching the cap.

 

[ZxC]

No problem. Make sure to do your best at keeping the eco-comp clean. Gently swirl up any junk during water changes and siphon the crap away. I’ve only ever had it in one tank and it is really good at physically trapping organics which will decompose and “feed” algae. Sure, it will also feed plants, but fertilizing plants is easy and cheap, plus algae is more opportunistic than plants and will utilize decomposing organics better than plants will. Hope this helps.

 

[fatfei]

It has, thank you ZxC [emoji106]