Question....

[Molson_28]

What's the best substrate for planted tanks. What should I be using.

 

[Ian086]

What's the best substrate for planted tanks. What should I be using.

Eco Complete is a very popular choice. They also have a fine version. It would be my first choice but with postage to Ireland, it worked out to be silly money. You won't go wrong with it though....

 

[Mebbid]

Specialized substrate is often overrated in a planted tank. If you are doing a low light tank I would go as far as saying it's unnecessary. Many people have plenty of success with inert sand for substrate in a planted tank.

If I were to choose one however it would definitely be the fine grained Eco complete.

 

[20cc]

best substrate is sand and or dirt capped with sand .

 

[Rivercats]

Organic Potting soil with a cap, sand, fine gravel, or any of the commercial plant substrates will work. What type of lighting (high, medium, or low) are you planning on using? Also what type of plants? If your just wanting mostly low light plants then sand or find gravel is fine. If your wanting medium to high light with a lot of stem plants then personally either OP Soil or a commercial substrate would be my choice.

The difference between sand and gravel compared to Organic soil and commercial plant substrates is that the later group has a high CEC, cation exchange capacity, which means they can absorb nutrients from detris and the water and hold them for use by plants. Sand and gravel is inert and does not have any CEC.

I have all planted tanks and they either have Eco Complete or Dirt with an Eco Complete cap.