# Soil substrate for pots



## EA James (31 Mar 2020)

Afternoon everyone, hope you’re all ok and staying safe
I’ve got a plan that I’d like some help with, I’ve bought some small pond pots that I plan on filling with soil and adding some big plants, then hiding them behind hardscape at the back of the tank. 
Firstly I’ve bought some tropica plant growth substrate that I thought was soil but it says it needs to be capped, if this is in a fine mesh bag in a pot will it cause any harm? Or do I need soil?
Secondly the said plants to go in the pots are undecided, any suggestions? tank is 70cm tall and 4 foot long so I want something big, and something that doesn’t need a lot of trimming
Thanks all


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## Zeus. (31 Mar 2020)

EA James said:


> Or do I need soil?



If adding ferts to your tank you should be fine IMO, just add gravel to weigh the pots down


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (31 Mar 2020)

The tropica substrate stuff really does need to be capped as it is very fine indeed unfortunately. I must admit I really like their products but their naming is not always clear...


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## EA James (1 Apr 2020)

Matt @ ScapeEasy said:


> The tropica substrate stuff really does need to be capped as it is very fine indeed unfortunately. I must admit I really like their products but their naming is not always clear...


Will it cause problems if it isn’t though? Is it just because of it’s fine consistency? 
I’ve got an old purigen mesh bag I was thinking of using to contain it


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (1 Apr 2020)

I suspect it would leach nutrients heavily unfortunstely


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## dean (2 May 2020)

If you are going to dose with ferts then fine gravel will be ok as a growing medium 

As for large plants that don’t need much attention 
Amazon swords 
Giant vallis 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## FakeBedLinen (3 May 2020)

I just came here to ask exactly the same question for my pots. I've been using expanded clay pebbles in mine but the plants just seem to look like they're lacking nutrients, I wonder if fluval stratum would be any good?


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