What substrate for a new tank

[Slappy Kincaid]

I'm redoing my planted 30 gal tank and can't figure out what would be best for substrate. I have Carib Eco Sea in there now and my pH hangs around 7.4. I does with Thrive weekly and have CO2.

I was considering keeping the Eco Sea and adding a plant soil like Flourite Black Sand, but I was unsure whether I should use something like Amazonia to soften/acidify the water. Any advice on a combination of substrates that will give my plants the calcium they need while keeping the pH from getting too high? I'd like to keep the pH around 7.0

 

[fearlessfisch]

Not sure--you might want to repost this in the Planted Tanks forum.



Good luck.

 

[ZxC]

Eco-Complete and Flourite are inert substrates, and offer no nutrients for plants to use. They have very low cation exchange capacities and instead, trap a lot of detritus that rots away in the substrate.

If your degassed pH is around 7.4 that's fine, what is your pH when you are injecting CO2? CO2 drops pH but over 1.0 in many cases.

 

[Slappy Kincaid]

My pH is 7.4-7.6 with the CO2 injection.