# Substrate Advice



## the_inspector (18 Apr 2018)

Greetings one and all!

No doubt you'll all be fed up of people asking this question but I'm at a bit of a loss really. The internet is a wonderful thing but sometimes it can complicate matters with TOO MUCH information. I am currently awaiting for my new tank to be delivered and I have been scouring the internet for information and all I have succeeded in doing is getting myself more confused. What I thought about using was a layer of Tropica Plant Growth and then topping it off with either the Unipac Limpopo Sand or the Black Gravel that they do. This brings the old Sand v Gravel argument into fruition. Fish wise I have Corys and Plecs of various shapes and sizes and also a few Amano shrimp. I even thought about making part of the front 'Cory Friendly' buy putting some Sansibar Sand in as a complete contrast (Plus I already have a bag of that!!) 

Whats peoples opinions of my ideas - Are you going to confuse me even more??


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## Zeus. (18 Apr 2018)

Hi and welcome 
Substrates choice is a big topic  much of which depends on you aims for your tank, low tech or high tech. Plus what fertilisation route you plan to use. I take it for granted that your doings a planted tank.

Aquasiol (AS) does make growing plants easier in high and low tech tanks, but plants will grow in innert substrates like sand or gravel but ferts need to be more spot on.

So knowing what you hoping to achieve with which route and hardware will help folk give better advise/guidance


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## PBM3000 (18 Apr 2018)

Just to throw you some more (and I know this is *nowhere near* the quality I’ve seen on this forum):

Inert gravel
No ferts
No CO2
El Cheapo Aqua One stock LED from PaH

What are you trying to grow? I’d pick the plants (in your mind) first - then plan a strategy around that.


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## the_inspector (19 Apr 2018)

Morning all!

Thanks for the replies. In my current tank I have a few Anubias nana (i think) and some bucephalandra, both varieties are attached to either wood or slate so no planting was involved. I like the idea of having long leafed plants in the rear working down to the front with a carpet. I had in my mind an idea of like a coastline with a beach - thats where the Sansibar came in. So a bit of a carpet leading to a beach.  I have no idea if it would work but I think it would look nice!


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## Edvet (19 Apr 2018)

Low light, no CO2 or high light, CO2 added??


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## the_inspector (19 Apr 2018)

It will be just Eheim Plant LEDs with no CO2.


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## Edvet (19 Apr 2018)

Simple coarse riversand and EI ferts work good and wil last years and years, easy to remodel.


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## sciencefiction (20 Apr 2018)

For bottom feeders like corys and plecos I'd go with Edvert's suggestion above. In time sand will take the properties of soil anyway, and you save yourself the dirty mess of uncovered soil, plus please the fish too.
I've had about 3 soil tanks so far, 2 still running but i totally don't fancy that anymore and have gone completely to sand only tanks. In the long run, it works better...especially with bottom dwellers, not only because they can uncover the soil but because activity wise they really seem to prefer non-organic substrate..On rich substrate, mine sort of sat around a lot doing nothing. On sand only they go sifting non-stop. I never see them sitting on one spot...
.
In about a year or so, even without any ferts, the sand will be rich enough for big rooted plants such as crypts and swords to grow and thrive. I have an observation that a sand tank starts off worse, but gets better down the years.  Where soil tank starts off great but gets worse over the years...Unipac sand can be too sharp for corys. It was for mine at least....I regret keeping them on that for almost 4 years.

Natural river sand would be best, or any quartz sand. Unipac is from some artificial material and in person it doesn't look as good as advertised. It feels like coloured plastic to me and although it was very few grains it happened to, some of mine went blue once they lost colour. lol...no wonder my corys hated the stuff.


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## PBM3000 (21 Apr 2018)

Interesting stuff.  Would fine gravel be considered a 'happy medium'?


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## Edvet (21 Apr 2018)

Fine gravel is fine I prefer the look of course sand mixed with some gravel, looks a bit more natural to my eye.
Here you can see mine:


Farlowella platorynchus by Ed Prust, on Flickr


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