Do I need to add gravel to the top of my soil?

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red devil

red devil

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I bought a rather expensive bag of aquarium soil for my aquarium because I want to plant it. Not sure of the brand - it is in Chinese - but it is micro black pellets that can be smashed into soil easily with the hands when wet. When I bought my plants at the LFS, they showed me how to plant them - take some tweezers, stick one end of the plant into the soil and tamp with a stick or your finger. I tried doing these with my soil and it does not work - I think it is not heavy enough. Should I put a layer of gravel on top of the soil to aid in planting? If so, what size?
 
Byron Amazonas

Byron Amazonas

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If this material is actually "soil," as in dirt of some sort, then yes, you need a cap or you will have a very muddy tank. But if it is one of the planted tank substrate materials, most of these can be on their own.

As for planting, I have never used implements, just my fingers. And how you do it depends upon the type of plants. From your description, I will assume you are dealing with stem plants. Remove several leaves from the bottom of the stem (I don't always do this, up to you), and with your fingers push about 3 inches of the stem down into the substrate. You can make a depression if the substrate is rough to avoid breaking the stems. Fill the substrate back around the stems. If the substrate is deep enough, at least two inches, this should hold. The stems will not be straight down but bent so there is more to hold them.

Byron.
 
THE V

THE V

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Sounds like a shrimp mix. Little round balls that fall apart easily. This is my least favorite type of soil to deal with. It does work for shrimp but the plants are constantly uprooting.

What type of plants do you want to grow? Some need a finer substrate to spread.
 
red devil

red devil

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Yes, it probably is a shrimp mix. Oh, well...I guess that is why they call it experimenting :) If I had a larger tank, I would probably put this down first, then another layer of more durable plant friendly substrate. My guess is that it is very beneficial for the root structure, but as mentioned, not so good for holding things in place.
 
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