Can Plants Grow In 100% Gravel Substrate?

[DanielG]

Hello,

Just wondering if its possible to keep plants healthy in a tank with 100% gravel substrate, about 3 inches deep?

Is there any advice on how to keep plants like this?

 

[rabbut]

Hello,

Just wondering if its possible to keep plants healthy in a tank with 100% gravel substrate, about 3 inches deep?

Is there any advice on how to keep plants like this?

Most plants will be fine, however, if you want more information, it may be worth posting in the planted tank section. There are more plant experts over there.
HTH
rabbut

 

[loachman]

Hello,

Just wondering if its possible to keep plants healthy in a tank with 100% gravel substrate, about 3 inches deep?

Is there any advice on how to keep plants like this?

Most plants will be fine, however, if you want more information, it may be worth posting in the planted tank section. There are more plant experts over there.
HTH
rabbut

generally, you can keep plants in gravel. They'll grow alot faster in the more expensive substrates, but not everyone needs/wants super growth.

The most important factor usually is the lighting of the tank. Most tanks are underlit for good growth of many species.

It may be helpful to get some root tabs, especially if you have root feeders like amazon swords or crypts. You just push them under the gravel near the plants around the aquarium. They're fairly inexpensive (maybe $10 for a 3 month+ supply of the expensive varieties).

For the easy plants that take little added care look at java ferns, hornwort, and elodea. They'll all do well with lower light and w/o fertilizers in most tanks.

As HTH said, post in the planted section if you want some more detailed/specific information.

 

[BigC]

Use fine gravel, not pea and certainly not sand.
First place around 25mm unwashed and mixed with garden loam (no fertilizers) or a proprietary Laterite mix.
Then place a further 35mm washed fine gravel on top.
A good plant to start with is Hygrophillia Polysperma. fast growing and easy to propagate via cuttings.
Regards
BigC

 

[Musho3210]

i use sand and my plants are growing like crazy under low light and no CO2 or fertilizer addition except root tabs. My crypts are getting lots of new leaves, my hornwort got out of control that i started hating it, one of my plants that i bought as a bulb grew 20 inches in 2 weeks with 5 leaves, now its been a bit more than a month and it has like 10 leaves and i had to cut them down so they wouldnt take over my tanks light, they are also growing flowers out of my water.

I stir my sand every week as well as having cories to take care of the top layer and MTS to take care of the bottom layers.

My amazon swords have been growing as well.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

I think it heavily depends on the type of plant, and what kind of life expectancy/growth you want. Some plants are extremely easy and will be fine for a long time in simple substrates. There are a few popular aquarium plants that don't even really require substrate (like java moss, java fern, hornwort/foxtail, and floating plants like duckweed or frogbit to name a few). There are quite a few aquatic plant size that rate plants by difficulty, light requirements, and substrate "richness". If you want a really lush and densely planted tank then it pays off to invest in things like enriched substrates, ferts, CO2 systems and nice lighting, but if you just want a few live plants as decoration and a Nitrate sink then gravel should be fine. You can always upgrade later.

 

[Davidtq]

Ive had more sucess with plants using sand than I did with gravel and under gravel filters.

My plants do well in sand, some of my plant stock is 5 years old! and been kept in sand all along. Ive never used CO2 yet.

 

[ShoC]

I have some amazon Swords in standard gravel,
they were okay originally untill I changed to never gravel then they started to decline,
I think it's because the gravels to clean I would recommend having root taps for sure.