Which gravel is good for planting? Is natural gravel ok?

[gu2high]

I am wondering which gravel to buy for a planting new aquarium. Can anyone give me some suggestions? Thanks!

[JDogg]

fine gravel (if sticking to gravel) i'm talking 1-2 mm grain size, not the "standard" gravel sold at walmart/petco/petsmart

[bs6749]

Avoid sand that is fine because it may compact the roots and kill the plants. How big of an aquarium is it? The reason that I am asking is because you may choose to go with something such as Eco Complete that wold be better for plants but it is pretty expensive compared to other substrates. I would recommend checking out pool filter sand. I know that a lot of people use that in their tanks. I do as well.

[jsoong]

You can get "concrete sand" from landscaping yards which is very coarse sand plus small grits which will work good as planting medium. However, depending on where the sand came from, it might change your water chemistry.

More expensive, but still 1/3 or less the price of ecocomplete, is Schultz Aquatic soil (or Profile), which is used for pond plants and is guaranteed safe for fish. I get that from my garden center. Disadvantage of Profile is that it has no nutrients, so you have to mix in fertilizers right from the start.

You can use Ecocomplete or other "complete" aquarium plant substrates. It can get expensive quickly. You can save some money by having your plants in pots, or just have an area with the Eco where you are planting & using regular gravel for the rest.

[rich311k]

A guide to substrates for the planted tank

Please read the above article it may help you decide. How much light are you planning to use on this tank?

[Woody83]

Free shipping on Eco Complete here if you choose that route.

[fish_4_all]

I can grow almost anything except for groundcover plants like HC in my standard aquarium gravel mixed with a little river run gravel. I would suggest the standard river run if you want to use gravel and a size range of a BB up to the size of a pea although smaller than a pea would be better, IMHO.

[gu2high]

Wow, this is a lot of help. Thank you all!

I have a long 30G tank need to set up for planting. It has 3 sq feet of ground surface.

From you suggestions, the expensive substrate is Eco-Complete and the cheap one is pool filter sand, and they are both doing well. How about mix these two to save some money. For an example, use 1 part of Eco-Complete to mix with two parts of pool filter sand. Will this work?

Where do you get the pool filter sand? I saw pool filter powder on HomeDepot web site. It is a pure diatomaceous earth. I wonder it may also work.

[rich311k]

It is best to go at least 50% Eco to get the benefit of using it.

[Purrbox]

That powder is probably going to be way to fine and compact really badly sufficating your plant roots. The pool filter sand should be available and any Pool Supply Store.