organic dirt & eco pro complete mix

[johnnyw8]

hi guys

so i was wondering for my new 120ltr tank that comes next week, would it be a good idea to use organic dirt roughly about 2 inches deep then to cap the soil off with a bag of eco pro complete.

now im kind of going down the route of just growing dwarf hair grass in my tank, but ive heard people say that the roots of the grass dont really attach themselves to the ecopro substrate.

so my idea was have afew cm's of the substrate just to cap off the organic soil underneath. would this work or would i just be waiting my time and money?

 

[EnderUK]

I've read eco complete begins to compact after a while when the smaller grains begin shifting lower. Flourite is a better choice as a cap as it has regular grain size. Also you don't need 2" of dirt, 0.5"-1.5" is more than enough along with 1-2" of cap that's a very deep substrate.

Hair grass seems to like a finer cap to grow in, it's doing okay in the half of my cap that is 2-4mm but not growing in the half that's 4-8mm. However. The way I did it was to have fine cap in one area and coarse in another, if you mix the two in the same area the finer grains will sink and you're left with the coarse stuff on top.

These rules go completely out the window if you use a super fine substance like play sand or silver sand, you only want around 10-12mm of cap, just enough to hold down the soil. Finer substrate is a pita to keep the plants down though.

If you havent read so, there's a nice tutorial, the-soil-substrate-planted-tank-a-how-to-guide.