Newbie 75 gallon - Substrate, plants question

[vthokie]

Hello all,

I'm starting a 75 gallon tank and was all set to go with small gravel, when I started reading about all the different substrates available.

I would like to have live plants, but at this point I'm not looking to have anything fancy. Just something that looks nice and relatively easy to maintain (no CO2 yet).

I've read about EcoComplete, but I'm not crazy about the black color. I've only seen Fluorite in pics and it looks too big for my tastes.

Will I be ok with small (dark brown) gravel, and maybe using fertilizer tablets if needed?

As far as fish are concerned, I'm considering either tiger barbs or congo tetras, a pair of kribs, and maybe a severum.

Thanks for any input you can provide!

- JW

 

[rich311k]

You will be fine with small gravel and tabs. It is what I use. You can also use pool filter sand if you wish.

 

[vthokie]

Thanks for the reply. I'm going with gravel. I noticed after I posted that the subject was covered in the Planted Tank forum.

JW