Substrate Questions

[KatieKontak]

I'm planning a 37 planted tank and I want to use black sand as my substrate. I also am planning on using one of the types of aquarium fertilizer substrates (I assume that's what it's called). I wanted to know what people have had the best results with. I found a place I can get them fairly cheap and was wondering if floramax from caribsea or flourite from seachem works better. I probably will only be doing easy plants to start out with since I've only ever done anacharis and had decent luck with that. Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

 

[Rivercats]

If you want to use black sand then by all means use it. You don't have to use a commercial plant substrate. Eco Complete makes a "fine" grain substrate. I use Eco in all my tanks. It's clean, no rinsing, just open the bag and pour it in water and all. If you go with sand the only thing you will need is to add root tabs if you plant any Swords, Crypts, or Bulb plants as they are heavy root feeders.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Floramax is essentially the same as eco complete without the liquid that's in the bag. I use floramax in a few of my planted tanks. If you can get it cheap locally, you should get it. However, if eco complete is offered and at a good price, get that because it requires no pre-rinsing, unlike floramax.

 

[KatieKontak]

Okay! Where do you buy your eco complete from? A lfs? And what is the best root tab? I'm really new to planted tanks if you can't tell. Lol.