Planted tank substrate

[justinb013]

I have been keeping fish for a while, and want to start growing plants too.

What would you experienced plant folks recommend for a substrate?

Does anyone know a good place to get driftwood?

 

[Leopardess]

There are a lot of choices:

Eco complete
Onyx sand
Flourite
Laterite - which is messy and I wouldn't recommend
Schultz's Aquatic plant soil (aka Profile).

Any of those are good choices. If you are looking for something cheap and readily available, Schultz's should be found at any Home Depot or similar store for about 6$ a 10lb bag.

It's what I use. Of course, I still think the others are just as good...

As for driftwood, check out www.aquabid.com and www.aquariumdriftwood.com....haven't bought any myself so i can't offer personal opinions, but those two seem to do a lot of business

 

[RTR]

Ha! I'll go with Leopardess' first three choices, but have exactly reversed opinions of the last two.

I've used laterite for years w/o problems in the base layer of small gravel substrates. I do not find it any messier than Flourite.

Profile is too light for me. The one test tank I set using it was very short-lived as I found it a PITA to work around.