Laterite Or Equivalent Vs Root Tabs

[Squid]

I am about to give my tank a bit of a change, which is also requiring be to change the substrate. My tank will be only partly planted, most definately not covering the whole base of the tank. With that in mind would you think that just using root tabs would be effective enough (placed appropriately), or would you still recommend something like laterite or flora base.

The reason for looking at an alternative is that with sand and a plec, is that the two get pretty mixed up after a while and I am trying to avoid this.

Cheers
Squid

 

[scouse_andy]

I'm in the same boat. Looking at doing up my 300 litre in the next couple of months and planning ahead. I'm thinking of using root tabs with fairly fine gravel for my plecs and setting up a moderately planted tank. I have lots of bogwood and want to leave plenty of swimming space, the plants I want are heavy root feeders - vallis, swords, crypts. I am planning on targetting key areas with root tabs rather than using laterite or eco complete across the whole base. You can pick up 40 API root tabs for the right side of a tenner on Ebay and I reckon they'd last a fair while.

Anybody else got any advice?

 

[Squid]

Thanks Andy.. that was the direction i was heading too, although always welcome to others comments.