Planted Tank Guru
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hendersonville, TN
Posts: 2,485
I use sand. It's not coarse sand, it's just regular black sand in the big tank and pool filter sand in my 10 gallon tank. Sand can compact over time, but snails keep things moving around, and rescaping the tank every so often will keep things stirred up enough too. As you can see from my avatar, I've got a lot of plants growing in just plain sand. I have never used root tabs or any other substrate fertilizer. Fertilized substrates like aquasoil spend their nutrients after a few months, so what is the difference?
Plants can take in nutrients from the water column. According to Tom Barr, they actually prefer that method. I dose dry ferts in my tank via the EI method, and have very rapid and healthy growth.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.