[RUDRAJI]

So I just setup a new tank yesterday with ADA Amazonia Version 2 as the under layer of roughly 1.5 inches thickness and toped it with pea gravel of around the same thickness or slightly less. I am planning on heavily planting it. My concern here is that I have planted dwarf hair grass which is supposed to have shallow roots and now I am worried if it would survive in the pea gravel. I am hoping that the Roots would be able to penetrate or at least get close enough to the aquasoil under layer to get the nutrients and spread. I have 50 watts of flood lights so that’s around 2.5 watts per gallon. I don’t know if that could be considered as high light but it was sufficient to create a nice thick carpet of DHG in my previous setup with only aquasoil. I also have a diy CO2 setup in place injecting at 1 bubble/s. The tank is a 20 gallon or around 74 litres. For filteration Fluval 107 with nice flow though out the tank so no dead spots. I really want the dwarf hair grass carpet in the foreground. What do you guys think? Will it survive in the pea gravel or should I scoop up some of it and make the layer thinner if thats advicable? The other plants are : vallisneria spiralis tiger, rotala mini butterfly, ranunculus inundatus, myriophyllum mattogrossense. Has anyone have had experience of a similar setup? How did it go? I would really appreciate your input.
Thank you.

PS: Should I start dosing ferts during this early cycling phase of wait for some time?

 

[davemonkey]

Should be fine as far as getting nutrients. Your bigger issue may be that the pea gravel is too course and heavy for the DHG to form a dense carpet (it may be spotty where it can get between gravel stones). But maybe not a huge problem.

 

[RUDRAJI]

Should be fine as far as getting nutrients. Your bigger issue may be that the pea gravel is too course and heavy for the DHG to form a dense carpet (it may be spotty where it can get between gravel stones). But maybe not a huge problem.

Thank you for replying. Most of the gravel is almost as fine as the underlying aquasoil but larger than sand and I also observed that the courser stones are at the very top surface. So I am planning on moving the bigger stones to the back of the tank with maybe a spoon to reduce the gravel thickness for the DHG. Hoping that this works out. Also is it recommended to start dosing ferts right away or how long should I wait? The soil is brand new and the tank was setup day before yesterday with fresh media in the filter so no prior biological activity.


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[davemonkey]

I'm not very familiar with Amazonia II, but it is supposed to have organics in it that provide nutrition. (The original version was basically a clay-encapsulated peat moss that released nutrients as the peat decomposed.) I would not add nutrients with that soil unless you start to see deficiencies in the plant leaves.