Best substrate

[Harveyman]

I was wondering what everyone finds to be best for plant substrate? I am toying with setting up a 10 gallon planted tank and am wondering what people have had success with.

 

[BigJim]

It really depends on what you want to spend and how much work you want to do. I've got plants in PFS and play sand. There's little to no nutrients in the sand, but it's cheap.

Some people use dirt, mineralized top soil, or ballfield dirt like Turface. These substrates are messier than sand, but they have nutrients and absorb ferts from the water column.

Others shell out the cash for EcoComplete, Flourite, AquaSoil, or some other substrate engineered for planted tanks. It's the least work, but costs the most.

 

[fort384]

Bigjim is right on. It really comes down to personal preference and budget. I have had high tech tanks with aquarium gravel as substrate. I currently am using aquasoil... Both work great. My plants do grow a lot faster though in aquasoil vs. Gravel.

 

[Harveyman]

I really don't mind spending a little extra to have my plants grow faster, I enjoy pruning and watching plants change from day to day (thats why I love water sprite).

I want something black though, for some reason I always thought that tanks with black substrate looked really good.

If it's any help, the tank is going to be designed to house pygmy or licorice gouramis (still researching both). So the planting will be fairly dense.

 

[Harveyman]

Quick sort off topic question, about how deep should the substrate be, 3"-4"?

 

[mfdrookie516]

Well, PFS is out of the question if you want black. Eco or Flourite is kind of a dark brown. I'm not personally familiar with any black, but I'm sure its out there.

2-3" is plenty IMO. I have about 2" in one of my takns, and about 2.5-3" in another. No noticable improvement in the extra depth except for rooting big swords (and I mean BIG).

 

[Harveyman]

I really don't like sand anyways, too messy IMO. I can live with something close to black, after all form follows function (most of the time...)

What about a mix/layering of flourite and eco complete (those are the two I know I can get easily).

edit: But then again, I've only had experience with super super fine sand.

 

[reefdiver]

Petsmart has some black sand fro around $22

 

[reefdiver]

I have it in a 20 Gal and it looks nice. Got water sprite in it and its doing good.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

PFS 9.95 for 50 Lbs.

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[mfdrookie516]

I don't know of any black sand that is not super fine though. I had Tahitian black Moon sand and it was really fine... PFS is not fine at all and is my favorite of all substrates... but its not the dark color you're looking for.

 

[Harveyman]

I can look at what they have in the stores around here, I might be going to the store tomorrow.

But anyways, what about layering?

 

[mfdrookie516]

I can't recommend layering. I have a layer of potting soil with sand covering it. I'm scared to death that if I sneeze within a 6' radius of the tank, it'll spew dirt everywhere. Layering eco and flourite would be pointless IMO. They both basically do the same thing. Laterite would be the big difference. I'll tell you something though. I have PFS with root tabs in my 40 breeder. The growth amazes me. I can't see myself spending big bucks on plant substrates when I get what I want from a $2 bag of pool filter sand.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Soaking down sphagnum peat moss now for 2 layer substrate, 3/4 - 1" peat base/2 - 3" PFS topper. Don't know what your time frame is, but I'll let you how it works this Saturday.

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[Harveyman]

I know filter sand would work well, but again, I want something darker. I'll look at some though just to see what the consistency is and try to find a darker equivalent.
What's laterite by the way? I think its some sort of clay right?

 

[Harveyman]

Limpet; Look forward to your results, peat moss could be useful for the pH I'm going to need.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Limpet; Look forward to your results, peat moss could be useful for the pH I'm going to need.

That's the main reason I'm using it (buffer here are tough) and peat is a magnet for minerals from what I've read on it (especially iron). We'll see how it works and at worst, I'll remove it and mix it into my garden soil .

One reason I'm going to use PFS is I've heard complaints of how easy fine sand gets vacuumed up and just the opposite for PFS during PWC. We'll see about that too.

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[fort384]

ADA Amazonia Aquasoil is black.

 

[Harveyman]

Maybe, I'll look into it tomorrow.

Thank you all very much, I'll have to do some more research on my part and digest your imput between now and whenever I'm on again.

 

[Harveyman]

Have you ever seen Aquasoil sold in a store, or is it just direct from ADA?