It will depend on the plants you want to keep. For example, If you want swords then your substrate choice will be important because they are heavy root feeders. However, if you want Java fern, nana, mosses, floating plants, etc then it wont matter because these plants tend to absorb nutrients from the water column.
substrate choice
hi there,
i am new to planted aquaria, from my "tiny whinny" research.. it seems that substrate is a very important part of a planted aquarium.
i have also seen some very contradicting remarks about normal gravel substrate(normal untreated plain gravel) and those made specially for planted aquaria (ie: eco-complete, aqua-soil, flourite.... etc). some says that it important to have planted aquaria speciality soil... while some say it doesnt make a difference between using that and normal gravel.
as a newbie in this hobby, i am just wondering if plants need those substrate to thrive on or they could go with normal coarse gravel.
pls advice.
i am new to planted aquaria, from my "tiny whinny" research.. it seems that substrate is a very important part of a planted aquarium.
i have also seen some very contradicting remarks about normal gravel substrate(normal untreated plain gravel) and those made specially for planted aquaria (ie: eco-complete, aqua-soil, flourite.... etc). some says that it important to have planted aquaria speciality soil... while some say it doesnt make a difference between using that and normal gravel.
as a newbie in this hobby, i am just wondering if plants need those substrate to thrive on or they could go with normal coarse gravel.
pls advice.
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
Where does the idea come from that swords are heavy root feeders? Tom Barr has cut the roots off of swords and gotten great growth from water column ferts. In fact I'm pretty sure that he has shown that plants use less energy taking up nutrients through the leaves than they do taking up nutrients from the roots.
I am in the same boat. Bump for an answer.i have also seen some very contradicting remarks about normal gravel substrate(normal untreated plain gravel) and those made specially for planted aquaria (ie: eco-complete, aqua-soil, flourite.... etc). some says that it important to have planted aquaria speciality soil... while some say it doesnt make a difference between using that and normal gravel.
I use normal gravel, natural river clay, and some laterite. I'm experimenting now with just using natural clay and the plants seem to be growing but it's hard to keep them rooted.
I was hoping that I could just splurge on one of the more expensive substrates (eco-complete or aqua soil), and just forget about having to deal with the substrate. Do these products need some sort of base layer of peat moss beneath them, or anything like that?
No, they do not require anything else.I was hoping that I could just splurge on one of the more expensive substrates (eco-complete or aqua soil), and just forget about having to deal with the substrate. Do these products need some sort of base layer of peat moss beneath them, or anything like that?
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
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