# soil substrate,  mesh or not ?



## sa80mark (13 Nov 2013)

Ive been reading up on soil substrate and have come across tons of info but what I cant find an answer to is wether on not to use a mesh screen between the soil and sand cap

What do you do ?


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## roadmaster (13 Nov 2013)

I tried a mesh, but root's grew through it making moving plant's a messy affair.
I have since just capped the dirt, and try not to move plant's any more than i have to.


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## Alastair (13 Nov 2013)

I wouldnt bother. Once the roots firmly grow through youll not be able to pull one plant out with out the rest coming out


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## sa80mark (13 Nov 2013)

Brilliant that makes life easier


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## Tim Harrison (14 Nov 2013)

it works for me...I suppose it's just a question of how much initial scaping and re-scaping you think you might do before you're happy. In which case it could prevent your tank turning in to a muddy puddle. I have to admit though Alastair and roadmaster are also right, pulling up established plants can be a two handed job, one hand to hold the substrate down.
But overall I like to have a distinct separation, it makes maintenance easier if you need to turn algae covered light coloured gravel over or vacuum etc I suppose in my case that's more important because I tend to run my low-energy soil substrate tanks in the same way I run my high-energy fuel injected ones...the only difference is CO2, obviously.


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## OllieNZ (14 Nov 2013)

Rather than completely removing plants I pull them up just enough to cut the roots off at an inch or so, as you would do before replanting them anyway.


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## sa80mark (16 Nov 2013)

Im leaning towards using a mesh for the reason troi stated, I will probably be moving plants around alot to start with 

Is this mesh suitable ?

 1.2m Gardman Greenhouse Shade Net Shading Material - By The Metre / Off The Roll | eBay


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## Tim Harrison (16 Nov 2013)

If it's the same as this then yep it's what I use...Greenhouse Shading 5m x .6m: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors There is a bit on its use in the tutorial linked below.


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