I have done a reef in the past, but never a planted tank. I'm setting up a 110g acrylic and am not sure wether i am going to go hi or low tech, but either way it seems I will benefit from choosing a good substrate. My pre concieved idea was that i was going to cap it with white sand, but wether or not that is a good idea, I don't know. I was hoping for some recomendations for some good, nutrient rich substrate and how deep I should make it.
I am not too familiar with substrates, but I think an organic soil is a good start for ideas. I have read that people use that, a clay/sand mix, just sand(like me)... there are a lot to choose from. With sand you will have to use root tabs and fertilizers more than with other types of substrate. And lots of people do sand caps, so I don't think it would be too much of a problem. Good luck!
Can you really get away with just sand, it seems significantly less messy, but can root tabs and such, really compensate for some sort of nutritious soil?
I have a 5 gallon tank with a 9 watt florescent bulb, and currently I don't have a filter. So all my plants are low light. I also have 2(soon to be 3) fish. So I don't even use root tabs or other fertilizers. They do just fine in sand only.
Thanks, Mineralized topsoil sounds like a good idea, I would like to cap it with white sand, but not if the sand will soon take on a salt-and-pepper look because of it getting mixed with soil, if that is the case I would rather do black, so I suppose my question is, How long will it take for the soil to get mixed with the sand?
If you have the money you can get things like eco-complete or just buy some laterite which is really cheap and mix it with you bottom layer. I used laterite laced gravel for a couple inches on the bottom and then topped it with play sand from home depot. The layers have stayed perfect for over 3 months now. As long as you only gravel vac the surface of the sand, then the layers should stay for a long time. Other then that, pulling up plants could also bring up a little gravel but pretty inconsequential.
Ok, I guess im not out of questions, on the making of mineralized top soil, I couldn't find any bagged top soil, my family owns a farm so couldn't i just go to one of the richer fields and get top soil there?
well im deffinitely going with MTS and im going out tomorrow to gather some soil from one of our richer fields (we own a farm) i dont feel like buying dirt unless i must.
Though if there is something magical in bagged soil, that can't be found on a farm, let me know by tomorrrow morning.
the partictular field i have my eye on hasnt been fertilized in a couple years
thank you for your imput
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