Lets just sum up gravel options

lousybreed

lousybreed

Aquaria Central Site Controller
Sep 7, 2004
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Bay Area, CA
I know you can use florite, eco-complete or a lateralite base but what are people using with good success? To fill my 55 with florite will cost $80-100!!!!! Can you have a sucessful planted tank with 50/50 florite gravel (fine gravel) mix? I saw someone with pool sand???? that had a nice looking tank. I am setting up my 55 gal (i have a daily log in general forum) and need to get going on this. i am looking for opinions....I have tried plants with plain gravel with no sucess.
 
Hmmmm
I'm going to guess that you're looking for a cheap substrate, right?

If you wanted the cheapest, I would use a mix of Aquatic Soil(from Home Depot/similar), and pea gravel, put over top of a thin layer of peat. The aquatic soil is like $6 a bag, and the pea gravel is about the same. If I re-do my 29 in the near future, I'm going to go that way. BTW, the aquatic soil is made by Schultz. Do a search for more info, I know that several ppl here have used it, and hopefully they will chime in.

HTH
 
Profile/Schultz's Aquatic Potting Soil and Turface are all basically the same thing as Fluorite, just lighter, both in colour and weight. I did a 50/50 mix of that in my tank. Basically they have the desired properties of Fluorite except that they're so light that keeping the plants rooted can be troublesome. So yeah, mix it with some pea gravel and your life will be a lot easier.
 
I use a mix of 50/50 flourite and gravel in my tanks, and it works well. The only thing I don't like about it is the color of the gravel.......I used the darkest natural gravel I could find and it is too light in color for my taste. Next time I set up a tank I hope to try Eco-complete.
 
I use pool filter sand in my tank. It's cheap. 50 pound bags at Home Depot run five dollars and change. None of the plants I have right now are very demanding. If I wanted to get into the harder to maintain plants, I'd do a flourite base with sand on top. As it stands now, I am really pleased with how simple it has been operating a planted tank.
 
I use pool filter sand in my 18g tank. It was free and I've got lots of it. Works great for easy plants, namely those that aren't heavy root feeders. For those that do like root feeding, it's fine enough that a bit of root tab can be burried deeply without too much effect on the water column.
 
Harlock said:
I use pool filter sand in my tank. It's cheap. 50 pound bags at Home Depot run five dollars and change. None of the plants I have right now are very demanding. If I wanted to get into the harder to maintain plants, I'd do a flourite base with sand on top. As it stands now, I am really pleased with how simple it has been operating a planted tank.
Click to expand...

I am starting up a 30G planted (36X12) and am thinking of using pool filter sand as a substrate. Had a few quick questions:

Are there any particular brands I should be looking at when buying?
Would it be easier to pour the sand first and then the water?
How much would I need to fill my tank. I am thining about 2-3 inches of substrate.
Do you use any other substrate (flourite, schultz, gravel) to help the plants root?

Thanks.
 
To me, Profile, etc. are not at all the same thing as Fluorite. The former is much too light weight (low density) for me, and too uniform in color. I set one tank using it and took it down a few weeks later. Not in my fish tanks.

I use plain gravel with mulm and a light dusting of peat at the bottom; Flourite or 50:50 Flourite:gravel; or gravel (not pea gravel, it is too big) with laterite. All three formats work fine for me. The first option listed does presume that you have old tanks which can contribute mulm (and plants) as part of a clean-up/reset.
 
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