Here are my experiences after 3 months. Would love to hear about other experiences.
Eco-Complete
+ Not hard to wash
+ Plants stay rooted
- Expensive
Substrate from aquariumplants.com
+ 22% cheaper than Eco-Complete
+ Easy to root plants
- Hard to fully wash
- Easy for fish to uproot plants
- BGA can grow on it
Regular creek sand <-1mm over garden soil that is mixed with perlite and osmocote.
+ Healthy plants
+ Minimal BGA
+ Cheap if you don't burn out your garbage disposal from getting grit in it while cleaning the sand.
- Messy to rearrange
Regular creek sand <1mm over Peat moss with perlite and osmocote.
+ No BGA ever
+ Plants seem to do ok
+ Cheap if you don't burn out your disposal
- Messy to rearrange
P.S.
Has anyone found a good, cheap, long lasting substrate fertilizer wo phosphorous?
ARH
Eco-Complete
+ Not hard to wash
+ Plants stay rooted
- Expensive
Substrate from aquariumplants.com
+ 22% cheaper than Eco-Complete
+ Easy to root plants
- Hard to fully wash
- Easy for fish to uproot plants
- BGA can grow on it
Regular creek sand <-1mm over garden soil that is mixed with perlite and osmocote.
+ Healthy plants
+ Minimal BGA
+ Cheap if you don't burn out your garbage disposal from getting grit in it while cleaning the sand.
- Messy to rearrange
Regular creek sand <1mm over Peat moss with perlite and osmocote.
+ No BGA ever
+ Plants seem to do ok
+ Cheap if you don't burn out your disposal
- Messy to rearrange
P.S.
Has anyone found a good, cheap, long lasting substrate fertilizer wo phosphorous?
ARH