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Complete change or will it be ok to cap?

Bertie

Bertie

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Joined
18 Apr 2013
Messages
489
Hi,
At the moment I have large 6mm - 8mm gravel in my tank as initially I did not intend to use live plants.

The problem with this large gravel, is that quite a few of the plants often "pop" out of the gravel,especially newly planted ones. When this happens one after the other, it does become annoying, and I think that maybe the plants have difficulty laying down their roots. My wife is unsympathetic saying that it is the only exercise that I get!!

Would it be beneficial to place say some Dennerle Black Quartz as a 1" - 2" cap over the top of this gravel say 1/2 one week and 1/2 the next? Or would it be best to remove the complete substrate and re do the complete tank?
 
If the Black Quartz is smaller diameter,then it will find it's way to the bottom and l might consider re-doing the substrate from scratch unless you don't mind the two substrates mixing.
Would, (were it me) leave some mulm in the bottom of the tank should I you decide to re-do it.This will help bacteria get established quicker to faster break down organic's from waste and or soil's, which would in my view mean more nutrient's readily available for plant's a bit faster?
 
Yes it is quite a lot smaller....I will have to have a serious think about what to do. I was not going to do anything until June/July so gives me time to think.
Thanks for your suggestions.
 
When I first setup my planted tank I placed Fluval Stratum (2-4mm size) under black Unipac sand. However after a while, bits of Fluval work their way up on top of the sand, especially after plant fiddling and the sand worked its way down. Also flow in the tank, if not careful, washed the sand around exposing the Fluval which then got moved around as well.

So, one evening, took 5-6 hours, emptied fish, plants and water and using a salad colander (not the wife's) filtered all the sand from the substrate. Put the sand back in 2-5cm bottom layer, shallow at front, deeper at the back (insert marked coffee stirrers to gauge the depth) and covered with the Fluval. Put water, plants and fish back. Done. Tried to keep as much as possible "dirty water" and "detritus" from all the sieving to put back with sand & Fluval as the tank was obviously cycled.

That was over a year ago, occasionally the sand shows due to flow mishaps and plant fiddling, but I just cover it up by pushing the Fluval around a bit or adding more Fluval.
 
Hi ian,
Thanks for that...I think I will change the complete substrate in about June or July..that I think will be the best way.
Thanks
 
The only thing in my case is, the fluval stratum is clearly less dense than sand, thus had a tendency to "float" on and up through the sand. Not too sure in your case, with gravel that this is so. The gravel may be better in staying put at the bottom, though I suspect the sand will fall through the gravel filling all the spaces up.

Not too sure what the solution is.

If I was doing mine again, I wouldn't have bothered with the sand, or maybe only a 1-2cm layer at bottom and use either loads and loads more Fluval or cat litter (didn't fancy spending ages washing and then watching it float) or "proper" ADA stuff (couldn't afford the mortgage to buy ADA).
 
Yes the cost is worrying, and have already upset the wife today as I thought I was buying a up inline diffuser from fleabay and looks as though the item is fake but will have to wait until it arrives. :( I might end up leaving the substrate as is for the near future.
 
I think if I showed that to my other half at the moment...instead of cooking me a nice chinese as she is at the moment, I would be wearing the wok on my head and I don't think it would be empty either.;)
 
I bought a 30L sack of the stuff for £20 delivered. It was more than enough for an 80L and a 30L, with plenty left over. Thankfully the substrate doesn't weigh much when dry, due to it's porous nature, if that is of any concern (I'd hate to lug around 30L sacks of sand or gravel).
 
What you need to do is try some sand with your gravel to see if it works.
  1. Scrounge some sand from somewhere, local fish shop, builders, kids sand pit etc.
  2. Make two containers from bottom half of 500ml water bottles.
  3. In one put layer of sand then cap with gravel (+add water).
  4. In other put layer of gravel then cap with sand (+add water).
  5. Tweak and fiddle with both and see what happens.
I suspect, the sand will perculate through the gravel and the gravel stay at the bottom, OK as a plant growing substrate. On the other one I suspect the gravel will sink through the sand and disappear and look messy.

I have 12.5Kg of Unipac Limpopo black I must put on sale someday (maybe £10 odd).
 
Thanks all for you help....I will have a good think about all this but the Moler clay seems a v good option at the moment!
 
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