# Newbie help please



## wbaguesty (7 Jan 2009)

Hi all, new here and have been researching the past few weeks on planted tanks.  Only just found this superb forum so will be reading through and asking questions as I go along.

One question I have is about substrate and gravel or sand.

I am looking at buying some Tropica Plant Substrate, what do I put on top if anything at all??

Gravel or Sand?? And also how thick should it be??

Thanks in advance for your help.

Guesty


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## LondonDragon (7 Jan 2009)

wbaguesty said:
			
		

> Gravel or Sand?? And also how thick should it be??



The choice is up to you really, what you want it to look like, you could also use a misture of both.
You need a layer on top to prevent the substrate clouding the water, as to how thick there are a few using it here so I will leave it up to them to advise on that


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## wbaguesty (7 Jan 2009)

LondonDragon said:
			
		

> wbaguesty said:
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Thankyou for your help.  I have thought about using a mixture so may do that.

What would I do to clean the bottom of the tank, obviously a gravel cleaner would just mix everything up.

What do people recommend??

Cheers.


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## Ed Seeley (7 Jan 2009)

I've got some under sand.  I only chose it as it was fine and it doesn't come up through the sand.  To be honest I wasn't that impressed with it as a growing medium since I started using aquasoil.


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## wbaguesty (7 Jan 2009)

Cheers, thanks for your advice.

Guesty


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## LondonDragon (7 Jan 2009)

If you purchase ADA Aquasoil then you don't need a top layer, you can use it on its own and its not that much more expensive in comparisson. I use Aquasoil in my shrimp tank and will do to in my main tank when I do a rescape.


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## Superman (7 Jan 2009)

I have the Tropica substrate capped with unipac zambezi gravel and the gravel is about 2-4" deep.
I believe the depth of the capping substrate is dependent on the plants and the layout you wish, that is, HC doesn't have a large root system so you don't really need loads of cap above the planted substrate, whereas crypts have large roots and need more gravel to grow into.


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## wbaguesty (8 Jan 2009)

Where would I buy the ADA Aquasoil from? Any good/trusted suppliers around??

Has anyone got any photos of it in their tank?

Also can I put gravel on top of the ADA Aquasoil??

Cheers


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## Ed Seeley (8 Jan 2009)

wbaguesty said:
			
		

> Where would I buy the ADA Aquasoil from? Any good/trusted suppliers around??
> 
> Has anyone got any photos of it in their tank?
> 
> ...



The Green Machine are the UK suppliers and sponsors on here.

Don't cover Aquasoil as it's lovely soft planting media and has a great, natural, matt effect in three different colours depending on which type you pick.  There are pictures on their website of it bagged and there are pictures of Amazonia on my journal.


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