Best substrate for 10gal for the buck?

[NewKidontheBlock]

hi, i'm new here and i've been doing some extensive reading before this post. I have kept fish for about 3 years now, and i have a 55 gallon goldfish tank, a 10 gallon tropical (which i wish to convert to planted) and a 15 quarentine lying around.

im sick of the unnatural colour of blue gravel, so i wanna go as natural as possible. i'm gonna move my fish into my spare 15 gal, scrape off some algae (just small traces), dump the gravel, and start fresh. probly within the next 2-3 days

in my 10 gallon right now is some fairly course 5-10mm diameter blue gravel, which i plan on getting rid of, my question is, what's the best substrate for this small tank. (I'd rather not get flourite cuz of the $$$).

Ive been thinking about either a thin layer of laterite and play sand or some of that "Special Kitty" KL with sand. What are your opinions for this smaller tank? (keeping $$ in mind)

[thezone]

If ur living in the US then flourite is cheap man at $11 US ($16 CAD)its a bargain nothing like up here in Canada its $30 ($22 US) a bag.

[Daemonfly]

I'd suggest Eco Complete if it's available in your area. It sometimes costs a bit more, BUT, you'd only need one bag for a 10g, so it wouldn't hurt as much, compared to a 55g for example.

[Buck]

What are your opinions for this smaller tank? (keeping $ in mind)

The plants dont know the difference between a smaller tank or a big tank, so you have to ask yourself ... "Do I want to give the plants the best advantage they can have for good health ?"

Gravel is for drywells...
Kitty Litter is for kitty poop...

Flourite, Eco Complete is for planted tanks. If you cant afford a bag this week , I would suggest saving your $$$ until you can afford it... why start off on the bad foot ?

[SCMurphy]

Can I second Buck?

Ecocomplete is probably the easiest substrate to work with for you first couple planted tanks. If someone wants to experiment they should wait until they learn how to battle algae and feed plants. I point this stuff out to anyone who wants to 'try' keeping plants.

One thing, if you want to keep stem plants you might want to mix some Tahitian Black Moon Sand into the EC to help keep the plants in place.

[NewKidontheBlock]

i did some looking around, decided not to go with KL because it was risky, and the smallest bag of flourite was twice too big (7kg) at $30 canadian (yes i'm in canada), and i couldn't find any ecocomplete, so i went with a base layer of 20oz laterite (the package said 1oz/gallon was enough) and topped it off with sand. it really looks beautiful now, a LOT better than its previous days. damn, shoulda took before/after pics HUGE difference

[Momotaro]

Flourite, Eco Complete is for planted tanks. If you cant afford a bag this week , I would suggest saving your $$ until you can afford it... why start off on the bad foot ?

I have always felt this way!

Save up your money and buy the best equipment or raw materials needed to build you equipment that you possibly can.

Mike

[Newkidonthetank]

OMG! u are the canadian me!

i have a 10g planted tank, a 10g cichlid, a 55gal community, and a 5gal formerly guppy tank!

ok that latterite , hmm.. never worked with it, i heard good things, but me personally i have flourite and it works great, i mean really well, i thought i might not like it cuz it is a little red,(not flourite red, reg) but it works great, like i said

[aquabillpers]

I've had success using an inch of 2mm - 3 mm inert gravel over an inch of unfertilized topsoil. Total cost of that for a 10 gallon tank wouls be about a dollar, maybe less.

Bill