Substrates for Aquarium Plants

[AHC]

Hoy Hoy,

I was looking around for more info on different substrates and found this which i thought was quite a good read. I pasted the link just in case i breech any copyright's. I couldnt find anything like this on the forum.

Most of the you guys are very experienced and may not get a lot out of this but its great to have on this forum for others to read the basics then read your posts for personal experiences and the help. :wink:

http://home.infinet.net/teban/substrat.htm

If you go back to the main page (or click here: http://home.infinet.net/teban/index.html) then there are other great articles. Articles 1 - 5. :cheers

[AHC]

Adding a working link to the main page for the other useful references.

http://home.infinet.net/teban/index.html

[ILLUSN]

Thats a great article and a few of my earlier tanks were based on it.

for ease of use nothing beats a comercial substrate, with some added macros for a discus tank.

I've used peat, vermiculite and laterite substrates in the past and in all honesty they are a PAIN for a discus tank or any tank where you'll be doing constant gravel vacs.

it particals are so light they quickly rise through the gravel and cloud the tank the moment they are disturbed. if you dont gravel vac your NO3 will skyrocket and NO2 has a bad habit of building asa well (that uneaten high protein food is murder on water quality).

to be honest I grow all my plants in terracotta pots burried in the substrate this stops the gravel vac from disturbing the roots (most of the time) and means i can clean VERY thoroughly.

in these pots is a mix including some comercial substrate (flora base is my fav, but also eco complete, onyx sand, flourite) to about 30%, 3mm gravel 20% and vermiculite 50% + potasium and iron in clay balls and maybe a jobes stick or 2.

the mix works great and is based on the info in that artical.

[AHC]

Fantastic, thanks mate. Im starting to make plans for when i get my 5x2x2 so that will help. I very much like the simple white sand and root system look but then was leaning towards 1 or 2 raised focal points based with a commercial substrate for plants and driftwood, then lined around those focal points lay down the white sand, scatted rocks and maybe scatted long grass (depending on temp of tank) - keeping most of teh sand bare for feeding etc. But potted plants like you say sound like a smart way to go. I just dont want to have too think of substrate so maybe i can have the riased focal points layed with rocks and plants (hide the pots in the rocks) with sand around the bottom. Will have to plan more to make it look natural. Thanks for tip. :)