Sure you could use it, I personally use DynaDirt. It’s made of reed sedge peat and sand. I also mixed it in with some mineralized top soil I happened to have. I would make sure to cap it real good, either with some fine mesh or landscape material and then place your cap over it (sand/gravel). I put my dirt in fine media bags, enough to contain the dirt, but still allow the roots to penetrate. Root growth is something that many people underestimate, they will penetrate anything permeable with the help of gravity.

 

Thank you Mr. Shenanagins! I'm going to give it a try in about a month. I think I have some fine mesh in the garage. I normally prefer sand, but this time will use fine gravel because when the zebra danios breed, they tend to scatter sand all over the place and they end up digging the corner areas of the tank looking for eggs to eat.

Thanks again, I can't wait to redo the tank

 

Aquascape claims their soil is free of peat moss and compost so I was hoping this wouldn't mess with my water parameters too much.

Back in the Before Times (before Big Al's exited the US market, ugh), I used to get this from them when it was on sale for use in planters in my container pond. Used two bags of it over the course of about a decade and it worked well. One thing to keep in mind is it's not as nutrient-rich as one might expect and was usually depleted after a single summer.

Not sure I would buy it if there were other planted options or if it weren't on sale but it definitely works. I kept shrimp in the container pond, as well, and never noticed any parameter weirdness or unexplainable deaths.

You could always just use the fine gravel you prefer along with root tabs if you want to keep things simple.

 

Thanks so much for the input, Somewhatshocked! That's too bad about the low nutrient content. I'm going to re-think this. So far I may mix a bit of active substrate with it (Tropica or Aquasolum), or like you said, just go with gravel / root tabs.

Also, as the tank is only 5 gallons, I may still give the pond soil a try and see how long it lasts for me. If it runs out quick, I can do a tear down and get a new substrate in place easily.

I'm hoping it will last quite a bit longer for me because my lighting on that tank is only 2 watts LED stock lighting, enough to get good growth from easy plants.

But then again, I do like the idea of just using root tabs and gravel. I've never used root tabs before, so maybe it's time .

Thanks again for your help, Somewhatshocked!