Hannah
New Member
Hi all,
I'm preparing to tear down and rescape my 310L planted discus tank next month, and am trying to decide which planting substrate to use.
At the moment I have a front area of decorative gravel and rear section of Colombo Flora Base Pro, with the two areas seperated by rocks and bogwood with fine filter floss plugging the gaps. However the Flora Base has started breaking down to mush which is migrating everywhere and making a mess. Also in a few areas the shrimp and corys have busted through my filter floss gap-fillers and the Flora Base has come through from the back and mixed in with the light coloured gravel at the front, ruining the look of the tank.
I've decided to clean the lot out and and thinking of trying the 'substrate in mesh bags' method, with a good layer of light coloured gravel 1-2 inches deep over the top. However I can't decide what plant-friendly substrate to use in the mesh bags. At the moment I'm looking at the Tropica Aquarium Soil (TAS), and Tropica Planting Substrate (TPS). As the gravel itself will be doing the job of anchoring the roots, the substrates primary job will simply be to provide nutrients to the plants, so I'm leaning towards using the TPS, but having never used it before am unsure if the texture is too fine/sandy to contain in bags? Would I be better off just scraping the bags altogether and putting a good layer of TPS in with a gravel cap? Or, do I use the TAS in bags and cap that with gravel instead? The plants won't be anything too fussy - mainly swords and hardy crypts.
Any insights / advice very welcome.
I'm preparing to tear down and rescape my 310L planted discus tank next month, and am trying to decide which planting substrate to use.
At the moment I have a front area of decorative gravel and rear section of Colombo Flora Base Pro, with the two areas seperated by rocks and bogwood with fine filter floss plugging the gaps. However the Flora Base has started breaking down to mush which is migrating everywhere and making a mess. Also in a few areas the shrimp and corys have busted through my filter floss gap-fillers and the Flora Base has come through from the back and mixed in with the light coloured gravel at the front, ruining the look of the tank.
I've decided to clean the lot out and and thinking of trying the 'substrate in mesh bags' method, with a good layer of light coloured gravel 1-2 inches deep over the top. However I can't decide what plant-friendly substrate to use in the mesh bags. At the moment I'm looking at the Tropica Aquarium Soil (TAS), and Tropica Planting Substrate (TPS). As the gravel itself will be doing the job of anchoring the roots, the substrates primary job will simply be to provide nutrients to the plants, so I'm leaning towards using the TPS, but having never used it before am unsure if the texture is too fine/sandy to contain in bags? Would I be better off just scraping the bags altogether and putting a good layer of TPS in with a gravel cap? Or, do I use the TAS in bags and cap that with gravel instead? The plants won't be anything too fussy - mainly swords and hardy crypts.
Any insights / advice very welcome.