Substrate questions

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Ken b

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Mar 20, 1999
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Wakefield, Ma.
Hello, Its been some time since I have posted here at AC. I used to moderate the reefkeepers board about a million years ago.. I had reef tanks for twenty years up until 3 years ago. Seems that along with the economy crashing, so did I.

Before I was bitten by the reef bug i was pretty big into planted tanks. This came about because I wanted to see my standard angelfish lay their eggs on the leaf of an amazon sword, and the rest was history. Back then there were no CO2 diffusers and ubstrate heater cables and we were very sucessful at getting banana plants. apons and others to flower quite regularly.

I just had a tank given to me by a friend and wish to forgo a reef in favor of getting back to my roots Yuk Yuk Yuk!!!

What is the best substrate setup going nowadays for a planted tank without substrate heat. I will add CO2 lateer but will rely on good substrate, light, and a decent Iron rich plant food like the Kent products I used to use.

Any help will be appreciated. BTW the tank measures 18"x18"x18". I also would like some suggestions on lighting as I will be running this tank with an open top and a pendant style fixture. I want to be able to see the apontogens flower in plain sight.

Thanks in advance Ken
 

ktrom13

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Feb 4, 2013
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boston
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Kyle
Im not a moderator but welcone back! I see your from Mass. Im not too far from you actually... About 15-20 car ride.



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JAY973

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Dec 24, 2005
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NJ
Well if want to go dirt you can do a Miracle Grow Organic capped with whatever inert substrate you'd like, but that's assuming whatever fish you plan on keeping aren't diggers. (I only say that because even my bushynose pleco's made a mess of 2 tanks with MGO bottom capped with quartz 3m digging under the driftwood.) This also assumes you'll have heavy root feeders. So something else to consider is the type of plants if you'll just be dosing the water column then you don't need a rich substrate and anything would do. You can always do root tabs also.

Basically there's more than one way to skin a cat... (not in the literal sense =)
 

Kaosu

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Oct 22, 2010
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I like sand..just plain old playsand cleaned really well. you can use pool filter sand as well!

for the root feeders just use some root tabs, plants seem to grow really well in it.
 

axelrod12

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Jan 10, 2011
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Greg
My vote is for dirt. Add some clay, muriate of potash, and dolomite to it. Cap with play sand, or anything really and your good to go. I've used it successfully with all stem plants in the tank or with lots of heavy root feeders. Most plants can still benefit from it.

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Ken b

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Mar 20, 1999
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Wakefield, Ma.
in the past I would use laterite capped off with a very fine-grained gravel. I been used four normal output fluorescent 5500 K bulbs along with co2 being fed to the intake of the filter from an eighth inch needle valve.
the product I am curious about is fluorite. Is that something that would be used in place of the gravel over laterite?
 

stsalerno

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Nov 16, 2011
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Sam S.
I use miracle gro organics choice potting soil and highly suggest it. My plants grow much better in it than they did with just ecocomplete as a substrate. I used ecocomplete as a cap but that's just because that's what I had. You can use pool filter sand or just about anything else as a cap.


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Ken b

AC Members
Mar 20, 1999
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Wakefield, Ma.
If you guys were to recommend the definitive book on planted aquaria, which book would it be?

I am located in Billerica Ma. I was wondering who on the board would be close enough to me to get some cuttings to get me started with this tank. Or if there is a good LFS that would have a good selection of livestock and plants.
 

Fish_Bone

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Jun 14, 2012
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Central Illinois
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Samual
Hey Ken welcome!

I have a decent collection of book and I have done a few reviews on them here. I will drop links to some decent ones. We can see if the others agree before deciding as well.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Aquarium-Encyclopedia-Freshwater/dp/1555217958
Personally this is my favorite book for freshwater tanks. It covers fish, plants, setup, etc.


http://www.amazon.com/The-Optimum-Aquarium-Kaspar-Horst/dp/3925916024

the above link is very much a advertisement, but still has decent, but sometimes out dated info.

http://www.amazon.com/Aquascaping-Aquarium-Landscaping-Aquarists-Aesthetics/dp/1927870100
this one is not about aquascaping as it should. but it does detail setup pretty well.

[video=youtube;K69PiRDGJkc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K69PiRDGJkc[/video]
I like oliver knotts book, but be careful to get the english version...unless that is you read/ speak german. LOL
It is a good book for the beginner aquascaper, simple.
 
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