Plant Substrate

[Biulu]

I have been looking at substrates for my new tank, and I have come across SEachem Fluorite, Sera Floredepot and Azoo. I am inclining towards Seachem fluorite, as I have heard good reviews about it. For Azoo; this substrate should be used on its own, and cannot be topped off with sand or gravel for which reason I do not favour it. What would you recommend?

HOw thick should the layer of substrate be, and then how do I top it off with gravel or sand? HOw thick should the layer of sand be to avoid that it starts mixing? For the Seachem fluorite they recommend 1 kg for 200 cm2. Is this amount without top layer, or does one have to add a top layer anyway?

 

[Biulu]

Nobody?

 

[MrWaxhead]

Not sure I have personally only ever used red sea flourabase, and it too says your suppost to use it on its own. But I like the look of various substrates that fit certain areas, so I use pockets in my tank, sand under my riccia and moss ( fertile soil would not benefit them any) flourabase under my grasses, and stem etc that will feed. And larger gravel and fair sized rocks under my areas that have java ferns tied to wood above it.

And so far things have seemed to gone well, I think the reason for not covering them is I believe they draw nutrients from the water, so if you cover them up they would not be as effective. I could be wrong though (I tend to be alot) hehe. And with flourabase it tends to compress as it ages, so I actually like to leave a uneven layer of gravel under them, so as it compresses it takes on the shape of the under layer of firmer substrate to some degree.

 

[Biulu]

Thank you for the reply!

So, if I understand you well, you do it the other way around? Having the gravel underneath and the substrate on top?

 

[MrWaxhead]

Well somewhat, in my florabase fertile soil I really only leave a fairly shallow layer of plain substrate with diverse texture to it. And the the only reason I do that is due to red sea flourabase's tendency to well shrink, it pancakes down as it ages, and I found having a more ridgid shape under it to shrink onto it somewhat takes that form. Just a personal preference thing I guess. I more pointing out how I used it mixed in with other substrates to achieve the look I was going for and I just figured why should I pay premium dollar to have a substrate to feed a rooted plant in areas that are not planted with rooted plants.

This is my 50g with mixed substrates so you can picture what I am talking about. I wanted to do this in this tank as I don't intent to fully on plant the whole thing, I wanted some plain sand for my corries (like on the left, that riccia and java moss is all on cave filled rocks with a 100% sand base for my fish to explore in, and other areas with bigger textures just to keep my fish with different things to mess with (like on the right, there is lots of different sized rock to gravel element there with twisted root knots coming out of it, and I planted all my lace java and java fern on it about 2 to 3 inches up form the substrate leaving a root maze that just has the plants roots dangling down into. You can't really see in this pic but under the grassy section is the flourabase and underneath it is plain white sand layed in a waved hilly scape (same stuff that is in the left of the pic), that the floura base will compress onto.

 

[MrWaxhead]

But every planting substrate is somewhat different so you will have to dig and ask alot of questions, I personally can't help ya with em, as I have never tryed them (they are all differnt, some you rinse, some you don't etc). So I don't really have anything I could mention on them. This forums is filled with alot of people with tons of knowledge and is what originally let me to go planted.

Bascially ask and read as much as you can and make your choice based of what you are going for. I basically used the search feature a ton when I first found this site, and read every thing I could find, and then made my choices based off what look, and what work I wanted to put into my tank. I have gone a few routes on the latter, some choices on light c02 and ferts and type of plants lead you to be in your tank every few days cutting, others can let you sit back and let em grow slow. Right now I am trying to find a happy medium hehe

 

[Biulu]

I think your tanklooks very nice! And I do like the idea of working with differente substrates to accommodate your different needs. And I know what you're saying if you don't want to pay too much; here I can't get anything but ordinary sand or gravel, so everything has to be shipped! For every bag of substrate I buy, I have to add at least once more that price for the shipping cost!

HOw did you ensure that your different substrates didn't mix? Especially on your left, where you have the cory beach, and then going towards your hilly plan where the anubia sits on the edge between the two of them. Or is that the trick; that you used a piece of wood with anubia on it to make the division?

 

[MrWaxhead]

Yes I used various objects to hardscape my tank to hold my substrates into there areas, I have large peices of wood holding some areas and in others little peices of slate that my riccia was once on. You can see some of them better in this pick before my plants started to grow in, in this pick I still had two sandy beaches but I took one out for some a flourabase pit as I wanted to add some ground cover as I found my Cardinals used this area more then my corries did.

You can see the large wood dividers on either side of the middle beach in this picture. I actually was happier with the look of the second beach, but I tend to make most of my choices with my fish in mind rather then what I do. And I am sure I will be happy with the changes once the floura base starts to compress down and take shape and my ground cover fills in.I also found in other tanks of mine, breaking areas up with hardscape really helped a lot with fast growing evasive plants, it really contained them to the areas I planted them in very well.

 

[Biulu]

Yes, this picture is really illustrative. Thanks very much for the tips!