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Suitable soil for planted tank?

joepaul

joepaul

Seedling
Joined
1 Jul 2013
Messages
14
Location
Ipswich, Suffolk
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Hi guys and gals. Newbie here coming from marines. I was wondering if this is suitable for a planted aquarium. The tank in question is a 5ft 500L jewel with a drilled overflow. the only fish i will prob have is cardinal tetras and maybe some cherry barbs. any advice will be greatly appreciated. many thanks, Joe.
 
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It's possible that this will contain wetting agents and such, which most likely will not do the water any good. The above recommended are ok, along with B&Q's own brand orange and white bag stuff (if you pick the bits of bark out), and 'Aqua Soil' (the pond stuff, not the extortionate ADA stuff).
 
Ok thanks guys. Ive only just decided on a planted tank so still alot to learn and something to look forward to. thanks for the advice ill have a ganda! 🙂
 
Henry said:
It's possible that this will contain wetting agents and such, which most likely will not do the water any good. The above recommended are ok, along with B&Q's own brand orange and white bag stuff (if you pick the bits of bark out), and 'Aqua Soil' (the pond stuff, not the extortionate ADA stuff).
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The b&q stuff, is it the compost stuff 10L £1.20? thanks.
 
As it says 'enriched with nutrients' I would stick to John Innes No3. It is tried and tested and it gives results(It works even better with water column dosing). What will you be capping it with by the way?
 
Palm Tree said:
As it says 'enriched with nutrients' I would stick to John Innes No3. It is tried and tested and it gives results(It works even better with water column dosing). What will you be capping it with by the way?
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ok thanks. Does it matter what i cap it off with? Coming from the marine side i love white crushed coral. Could i use that? Thanks for your replies. 🙂
 
joepaul said:
ok thanks. Does it matter what i cap it off with? Coming from the marine side i love white crushed coral. Could i use that? Thanks for your replies. 🙂
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A crushed coral substrate isnt suitable as it would bump up your ph gh etc massively high in a planted tank. As im sure you know it acts like a buffer.

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Alastair said:
A crushed coral substrate isnt suitable as it would bump up your ph gh etc massively high in a planted tank. As im sure you know it acts like a buffer.

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yesbof course it would. Im so used to ph being high as i had cichlids then marines. What the ideal ph for a planted tank. I would use play sand but find it a bit too fine and stirs up very easy.
 
joepaul said:
yesbof course it would. Im so used to ph being high as i had cichlids then marines. What the ideal ph for a planted tank. I would use play sand but find it a bit too fine and stirs up very easy.
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Ermmm depends on the fish you want to keep and your tap water ph but usually anything around 7 is considered the norm.

If your looking for a bigger grain size then you couldnt do any better than pool filter sand. Its really cheap too and has a very natural look to it.

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Alastair said:
Ermmm depends on the fish you want to keep and your tap water ph but usually anything around 7 is considered the norm.

If your looking for a bigger grain size then you couldnt do any better than pool filter sand. Its really cheap too and has a very natural look to it.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2
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Hi again. justy the usual really, cardinal tetras, cherry barbs etc. id like to keep it low tech really. dont fancy dosing co2 yet as id like to look into it more as from what ive read can be difficult in larger aquariums. i have 80w of 6500k leds and 24w 3w of royal blues. do you think they will be sufficient? many thanks.
 
The B&Q stuff you mentioned is what I have used in the past, just be sre to remove any large clumps of debris. Search for 'Moler clay' on this site. It is an excellent capping medium.
 
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