Hi Everyone!
I am in the process of re-doing my 55 gallon tank and will be giving live plants a shot again. My past attempts were always unsuccessful but I think the major problem was my lighting and wrong plant choices. I am looking into my lighting upgrade now and will hopefully have the new lights within the next couple of weeks. And doing some homework before I buy my plants.
The tank currently has sand for substrate. It has been running as an African cichlid tank. This is my first tank with sand and I really like the natural look of it (and the fact that no matter how much I stir it up these days it seems to settle within moments and the water is clear again)
I would really like to keep the sand for substrate. I do worry that it might not be deep enough for plants though. I am using pool filter sand and the substrate is about 2" deep at the moment but some of that is due to the fact that there is a plastic eggcrate under the substrate to support the rock work. How deep would the bed need to be? Someone told me to leave the eggcrate because it will give the plants something to root to, is this good advice? Would I be better off mixing a different substrate with the sand? I plan to use ferts and also a DIY CO2 system. Will it be ok if I keep the sand?
I am in the process of re-doing my 55 gallon tank and will be giving live plants a shot again. My past attempts were always unsuccessful but I think the major problem was my lighting and wrong plant choices. I am looking into my lighting upgrade now and will hopefully have the new lights within the next couple of weeks. And doing some homework before I buy my plants.
The tank currently has sand for substrate. It has been running as an African cichlid tank. This is my first tank with sand and I really like the natural look of it (and the fact that no matter how much I stir it up these days it seems to settle within moments and the water is clear again)
I would really like to keep the sand for substrate. I do worry that it might not be deep enough for plants though. I am using pool filter sand and the substrate is about 2" deep at the moment but some of that is due to the fact that there is a plastic eggcrate under the substrate to support the rock work. How deep would the bed need to be? Someone told me to leave the eggcrate because it will give the plants something to root to, is this good advice? Would I be better off mixing a different substrate with the sand? I plan to use ferts and also a DIY CO2 system. Will it be ok if I keep the sand?
