Sub-substrate needed?

[Eoin]

I just started a planted tank. Before this my tank had simply contained plastic plants. When I went to buy plants from my lfs, I listed all the things I had picked up to get my tank ready for the new plants, and asked if there was anything I had missed. The person working the fish section said no. However, reading through material here I am discovering that I should have purchased a sub-substrate to go under my gravel. I haven’t the money to afford more plants, and I don’t want to risk pulling up these new plants if I don’t have too.

The plants I have in my tank are,
Pygmy Chain Sword
Cabomba
Rotalla (the one with the small leaves, and red base)
Bacopa
Hydrocotyle
Serpent Val

Will these survive in a purely gravel substrate, or do I need to redo my tank?

 

[Menagerie]

[center:a1258afb37] Welcome to AA, Eoin! [/center:a1258afb37]
Just wanted to say hi! This question will be answered quicker in the Planted tanks forum

 

[Eoin]

Hi Menagerie, thanks for the nice welcome. I guess I figured my question was a bit newbieish, but I will toss it over to the plant section as par your suggestion. Cheers.

 

[Menagerie]

You may end up with suggestions here, but it will take longer

 

[malkore]

if you have enough light, those plants will be fine in plain gravel. the pigmy sword & valisneria likes a little better substrate, but it should do fine in plain gravel. You'll wanna invest in some root tabs if you haven't already.
The rotala, bacopa and cabomba are primarily water column feeders, adn they'll root just fine in gravel.

what kinda light wattage do you have? CO2 injection? Size of tank? Liquid ferts purchased?

 

[Eoin]

Right now my tank has a single 15 watt tube. The problem I have is that I haven’t the cash to buy a new canopy for my tank. I do have a CO2 injection system, made by Nutrafin. May tank is 20 gal, with dimensions of 24” long, 12.5” wide and 16” tall. The liquid fert that I have is simply called “Plant Gro” Iron enriched.

 

[flipz]

I don't know much of anything about planted tanks, but from everything I have read, plants seem to need about 2 wpg of light to grow. that would mean for your 20 gallon tank you would need 40 watts of light.

but that may be different for your plants... im just going by what i've read. hth

-brent

 

[brendan]

If you don't have a lot of money a good way to get more plants for free is grow your own. I'm specifically refering to the Cobomba, if you get it a ton of light (3wpg) it will do really well. Then once it gets tall enough just cut it down and replant the cutting, soon enough you'll have more than you know what to do with.