Can I convert to fully planted without removing the gravel?

[Emmalovesfrogs]

Hello all! I met a few of you through my introduction post, this seems like a very good group full of friendly and helpful people. Water is slightly cloudy but the paint behind the wall is brown and that makes it look more cloudy than it really is in the pictures. Currently I'm running a top fin pro series 70 multistep filtration system and a marineland 200 canister filter. I have two heaters because I needed to raise my temps and it was cheaper to buy a second heater. I've had my tank for going on 4 months and my tank is fully cycled. In the beginning, I was bad about over cleaning my tank and filters. I've gotten to the point where I don't clean my filters unless there's a noticeable difference in water flow. I don't want to disturb the beneficial bacteria. Ammonia and nitrite are at zero and nitrate is around 20 ppm. I haven't tested Gh and Kh yet but I will get a test kit soon. The pH is around 6.8-7.0 and I've been using pH up to bump it to 7.2, I intend to add some crushed coral for a more permanent solution. I'd also like to make a good sized limestone rock pile in the corner and maybe take that plastic tree looking thing out to add a good size chunk of driftwood or two medium sized pieces stacked together. I also intend to add a bunch of floating plants. I'm wanting to convert my tank to being fully planted and I know that gravel isn't the best substrate for a planted tank. One of the Father Fish videos said that I could add sand on top of the gravel, and that it would settle about half an inch into the gravel but unless I'm moving stuff around or doing excessive water changes then this should be fine otherwise. Is this a viable solution? I'd like to avoid disturbing my aquarium by removing the gravel and starting over from scratch with my substrate because I know that will stress my fish and throw everything out of whack. What if I add soil and mix it with the gravel and then put a layer of sand on top of that? Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated

 

[GaryE]

Just plant, and maybe use root tabs. Adding soil now can kill your fish easily - that's a set up you might for some reason choose to do with a new tank starting out, but you've made a good choice and can roll with it.

Father Fish argues for a whole system approach that was all the rage when I was a teenager (I'm retired), and having been there and done that, I am skeptical. Whether his system is useful to you or not depends very much on what kinds of fish and plants you want longterm, but his systems would be for another tank, or for a complete emptying out.

 

[Emmalovesfrogs]

Just plant, and maybe use root tabs. Adding soil now can kill your fish easily - that's a set up you might for some reason choose to do with a new tank starting out, but you've made a good choice and can roll with it.

Father Fish argues for a whole system approach that was all the rage when I was a teenager (I'm retired), and having been there and done that, I am skeptical. Whether his system is useful to you or not depends very much on what kinds of fish and plants you want longterm, but his systems would be for another tank, or for a complete emptying out.

Yeah that definitely makes sense.. adding soil would probably change the biochemistry. I tried to make a video but there's like these little root looking things growing off of some of the leaf tips on a couple of my plants that have been in there longer. Does that mean that the plants are healthy and pulling nutrients from the water?

I'll definitely look into getting some root tabs. Will that help to hold the plants down? I've only had an issue with one plant so far but it has come loose a couple times when a frog bumps into it. Am I supposed to leave the rocks and the wrap that comes with the plant bundles? I've been taking it apart and just sticking the plant bundles in my gravel. Then I kind of pile up the gravel a little bit around the plant.

Can I still add sand over the gravel? There's this really pretty rust colored sand I've been eyeing that I think would add to the aesthetic of my tank. I also want to have a pretty dense patch of floating plants, but I do have 11 African dwarf frogs and I don't want them to have any troubles with getting to the surface for air.

 

[GaryE]

At one point, I babysat 10 of those frogs while I found homes for them, and they did tend to knock things around. They aren't great for serious aquacape people. If you have standard stem plants, they'll be uprooted until they grow roots, and even then. It seems to be constant replanting is the price of frogs in a tank.

You certainly can add sand on top of gravel. I do this often. It will work in and in time, largely vanish. I'd suggest that as much of a pain the task is, rinse it and then rinse it more. Depending on the quality of the sand, you can lose half a bag to a good rinse, but the alternative is to have frogs stirring up fine dust and clay forever. That can be unsightly, but will also shorten the lives of filter impellers as it gets drawn in.

My concern with putting dirt in is the nutrient spike it could cause. Under a layer of gravel, it works one way. Loose in the tank, as a lot would be with a 'retrofit', your cycle could be overwhelmed.

I have held plants down in tanks using pebbles, but those frogs have arms and legs and pull on plants high up.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

You can plant in gravel. However, the size of the gravel matters in terms of what you can plant. Your gravel can work for some but bot for all plants. You can also plants things on rock or wood. the most common would be anubias and ferns.

I ran a high tech pressurized co2 added planted tank using tiny gravel. There was nothing i could not grow in it. However, I did a tank with bigh gravel for my clown loaches and there I could not do stem plants or a few other things, However, it had a huge Amazon sword in it which got way to big for a 75 gal.


Rather than have to completely redo your tank substrate wise I would try working wiht olants that you can have thrive in bigger gravel.

I have never been interested in having dirt in any of my planted tanks. At myy peak I had 13 planted tanks running and none had a sand bottom. I also never vacuum my planted tanks. I have never had any reason to do so.

When you get around to setting up your next tank, you will be able to do things the way you want to from scratch. This means your set-up can be designed to support whatever plants you may want.

 

[Back in the fold]

Put your plants in the gravel you have in there already . Before sand and fancy substrates became all the rage that’s what people did and they had beautiful aquariums . Dirt ? I’m skeptical . I know people like to do that but if you want a low or reasonably low maintenance aquarium I would not do it .