peat or soil

loucas6290 said:

ok well i have heard to different things in the last couple of weeks concerning undersoil. well im in the process of upgrading my 10G to a 20 g high. as of right now i have a bare tank i am going to be moving my 4amazon swords 1 crypt and one red ludwiga(sp). i was wondering waht would be best to go under my substrate, soil or peat moss.

also, would anyone happen to know what lants would be good to breed harlequin rasboras.

one more question ans i swear im done, waht would be the best wattage per gallon for my amazon swords, crypts and ludwiga?

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You're going to get about 4 different answers at least. Some will say soil, some will say peat, some will some mulm, some will say none some will say something else entirely. I am growing the same plants you are (and plenty of others) under 2.24 WPG of PC lighting on a tall tank with nothing but Pool Filter Sand as a substrate.

I'd use Mulm(the dirt in an established substrate, when you vacuum a gravel bed) and peat in most tanks, I sometimes might add Leonardite, hydroponics places carry it.

I do not add a lot of peat, mulm or leonardite, maybe 1/4" to a CO2 enriched tank, 1/2" to 1" perhaps to a non CO2 tank.

You can use soil, I'd use plain potting soil, soak it for 2 weeks to leech out the NH4 or boil it for 15 minutes.

Peat has virtually no NH4.

You can add NO3, K, PO4 any time to the water column without issue, but not NH4.

I'd suggest for a 20 gal:
2 bags of flourite or Onyx sand
Mulm
leonardite(1lb)
Put the mulm/leonardite on the bottom, cap with rinsed flourite/onyx(rinse 3x in a bucket, then add), now you are done.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Can u seriously just go down to a local garden center and buy a bag of Peat, boil it and put it in as part of the substrate?? What are the advantages of using peat?

Using soil and pete as a substrate is sort of old school now. The "Dutch" way of aquascaping has taken hold in which most people use artificial soils such as laterite, shultz aquatic plant soil (good and cheap!), and flourite. Most garden soils will contain fertilizers, lots of nitrogen, bacteria, metals, and turn your water brown. Peat is nitrogen free and does not contain fertilizers that will cause algae to grow. Peat will make the water slightly yellow but filtration will remedy the problem, and being the bottom layer, it may have no effect. Peat is used by people who want acidic water because it lowers the PH. If you already have acidic water and don't want acidic-loving fish, you prob don't want to use soil or peat.