I've always liked the planted aquarium look and i have some questions. Do I need a certain type of substrate? If so what kind? I've read about ecocomplete and some others but right now i have river rock gravel. Any help would be appreciated.
Planted aquarium questions
- Thread starter sinistersaint
- Start date
my opinion on this after using ecocomplete, sand, and large gravel for planting.
eco is great but expensive and planting in it is easy and it adds nutrients to the bed.
Sand is super cheap and planting is a little more difficult. it needs to be stirred every few weeks to keep it from compacting. you may want to add some nutrients to it every so often via root tabs.
large gravel - inexpensive, impossible to keep someplants down, no nutrients but if you avoid gravel vacuuming it will build up some on its own.
what i would suggest to you....keep your river rock, add a little bit of well rinsed sand and start with some easy plants like wisteria and anubias
enjoy!
eco is great but expensive and planting in it is easy and it adds nutrients to the bed.
Sand is super cheap and planting is a little more difficult. it needs to be stirred every few weeks to keep it from compacting. you may want to add some nutrients to it every so often via root tabs.
large gravel - inexpensive, impossible to keep someplants down, no nutrients but if you avoid gravel vacuuming it will build up some on its own.
what i would suggest to you....keep your river rock, add a little bit of well rinsed sand and start with some easy plants like wisteria and anubias
enjoy!
Most LFS sell it IME. Petco/petsmart do not. A lot of people in the classifieds here do as well, and you can't beat the prices nor the quality of plants.
I've yet to have problems with using plain ol' sand or gravel with most easy and undemanding plants.
I've yet to have problems with using plain ol' sand or gravel with most easy and undemanding plants.
i think that marsilia minuta (sp?) (aka dwarf clover) is a relatively easy grower as well. groundcover plants can be more difficult because of the quality of light that reaches the bottom of the tank.
i have always liked dwarf sag as a ground cover.
i have always liked dwarf sag as a ground cover.
Planted Aquarium
Hi Mike D.here from Blackwater. There are many requirements for a planted tank,to start in simple terms the substrate is very important I use eco-complete, next lighting,depending on what you will stock in your planted tank,water temp.Different plants will not do well in high temps.You need at least 2.5 to 3 watts of light per gallon,use fixtures that are day lite bulbs,spectrum bulbs I dont care for,I use Coralife fixtures with 67 k 96 watt in my Discus tanks. The best way to start is research and get a few books on the subject. Good Luck Mike D.
