What is a good quality substrate?
- Thread starter AquaticAustin
- Start date
Don't judge a book by its coveroh pooh. I just read the header and thought you meant "substrate in general". Did not realize you had already narrowed it down to gravel. So I got you this link to AquariumPlants.com stuff for nothing.
never mind.
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Let me explain why sand is better than gravel. But first, lets beat the dead UGF horse with another stick (aka the 30 year UGF debate).
Under gravel filters can be an inexpensive, effective bio-filter, but require serious routine maintenance and can all too easily become nitrate factories without aggressive routine vacuuming! Debris get to deep, too quickly and if the water flow stops, serious anaerobic decomposition evil can happen.
Gravel without a UGF still allows food to quickly get out of reach and detritus sifts down deep and periodic gravel vacuuming is required.
With sand, mulm collects on top of the substrate where it can be allowed to slowly decompose to feed the substrate and the rooted plants OR is easily removed by hovering a siphon just above. Sand (as in deep sand bed 3" or more) also has the potential to become a very good bio-filter, even supporting anaerobic denitrate bacteria.
I switched to pool filter sand as I believe it's more uniform screened size prevents packing (besides, I had some left over from the last change for the pool filter). PFS seems to work well and looks excellent. Others have also reported success with basic play sand.
The key to sand is to wash/rinse very well to remove 'fines' which are dust like particles of sand. Best done outdoors with hose and 5g bucket a little at a time.
Also with sand, some feel they need to periodically stir it. This is counter productive as organisms develop in regional harmony that should not be disturbed. Also, stirring risks mixing detritus deep into the bed and creating undesirable results.
Under gravel filters can be an inexpensive, effective bio-filter, but require serious routine maintenance and can all too easily become nitrate factories without aggressive routine vacuuming! Debris get to deep, too quickly and if the water flow stops, serious anaerobic decomposition evil can happen.
Gravel without a UGF still allows food to quickly get out of reach and detritus sifts down deep and periodic gravel vacuuming is required.
With sand, mulm collects on top of the substrate where it can be allowed to slowly decompose to feed the substrate and the rooted plants OR is easily removed by hovering a siphon just above. Sand (as in deep sand bed 3" or more) also has the potential to become a very good bio-filter, even supporting anaerobic denitrate bacteria.
I switched to pool filter sand as I believe it's more uniform screened size prevents packing (besides, I had some left over from the last change for the pool filter). PFS seems to work well and looks excellent. Others have also reported success with basic play sand.
The key to sand is to wash/rinse very well to remove 'fines' which are dust like particles of sand. Best done outdoors with hose and 5g bucket a little at a time.
Also with sand, some feel they need to periodically stir it. This is counter productive as organisms develop in regional harmony that should not be disturbed. Also, stirring risks mixing detritus deep into the bed and creating undesirable results.
Well let me state why I would like to use the UGF. First of all it came with the tank on CL and I actually like it accumulating debris under it, I use my gravel vac to siphon out ALL of that junk every month or so. Also in my current 75 gallon I am using a 55 gallon UGF (which is 6" too small so the front of my tank doesnt have it). The plants that I have planted over my UGF have grown into it and have exploded in growth while the plants up front do fine but not nearly as well as the ones in back. Please note that obviously this is not my only filtration. I run 2x penguin biowheel 350B and with this new tank since it is so tall will add a marineland magnum 350 canister filter which also came with the tank and works well so its not that I think the UGF works as a actual filter but I like being able to suck all of the junk out from under my gravel bed while not disturbing my plants and driftwood.
They said more should be in on friday... which kinda sucks because I wanted to do the switch over today since college starts back tomorrow and the next store is over an hour away
Maybe Quickrete all purpose gravel from Home Depot / Lowes, etc.
Maybe not the color you're looking for, but it's cheap, plentiful, and most importantly, SAFE!!
We use it in our tanks and it looks good...very natural. Around here it's about $4.00 for 50 lbs.
Just rinse ALOT. Homer bucket about 1/4 full and keep rinsing until the water is clear.
Good luck in your search.
http://www.quikrete.com/ProductLines/GravelAllPurpose.asp
Maybe not the color you're looking for, but it's cheap, plentiful, and most importantly, SAFE!!
We use it in our tanks and it looks good...very natural. Around here it's about $4.00 for 50 lbs.
Just rinse ALOT. Homer bucket about 1/4 full and keep rinsing until the water is clear.
Good luck in your search.
http://www.quikrete.com/ProductLines/GravelAllPurpose.asp
a properly maintained UGF does have it's place, although i personally would not use one - one tank has big cichlids that tend to push gravel around and the other has sand substrate that i don't want to switch out (the cories like the sand and i wouldn't want to deprive them of their 'rooting fun').
would flourite be too fine to use with a UGF? it is a great plant substrate from my research, although i've never used it myself i have seen friends' tanks with it and it does look nice. i believe you can get it in black. it isn't cheap though. it's by Seachem. http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/FlouriteBlack.html
would flourite be too fine to use with a UGF? it is a great plant substrate from my research, although i've never used it myself i have seen friends' tanks with it and it does look nice. i believe you can get it in black. it isn't cheap though. it's by Seachem. http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/FlouriteBlack.html
