Substrates

[Kris85]

Hi all, ive just found this site and i must say what a great site it is . Im after a little help. Ive kept planted tanks on and off for the last 6 years, my last system was a full dennerle set-up which ran with reasonable success for a number of years. I have had to dismantle this tank because i recently moved, but am looking to set up a juwel rio 300. I have all the dennerle gear left, cable heater, temp controller, ph controller, co2 etc, but am confused with substrates. Should i re-use the cable? ive seen alot of people seem to think they're useless and not worth the effort. With regards to substrate should i use dennerle deponit again? trouble with this was it tended to work its way into the top layer of quartz gravel. I see alot seem now to be using ADA products. I like the look of the ADA aquasoil particularly the 'Amazonia' but do you need the powersand with that or not? also i want a substrate with a decent (lifespan 5+ years) and ive heard you need to replace ADA substrates every 12months!! which is simply not feasable. im also confused about what exactly the ADA substrate set up is

Anyway ive rambled enough lol
anyhelp would be much appreciated,

Chris.

 

[Zagggon]

Well I have gravel in both my tanks, and one thing is for sure, they are a royal ***** to clean unless your nuts and gravel vac like 1-2x a week or something.

 

[33moths]

I have marbles in one tank. They're fairly simple to clean, but I gravel vac quite often. Just keep one loose layer of them. You could use flat marbles, or smooth safe rocks - keep barely a layer to clean the bottom easier. In another tank I have normal blue gravel. It looks nice too; a bit harder to clean than marbles but still not bad. I'd probably never try sand, but that's me. But I'm no help really, I have no plants. sorry.