what substrate do you use?

brackishdude

brackishdude

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Dec 28, 2002
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I am finally getting some work done on my sitting-in-the-garage-empty 180gal, and I will have a very large mack-daddy sump with ~15 gal of bioballs & the works. I planned on using the same small (~1-2mm natural) gravel that i use in my 100gal as substrate, just using the UG in reverse flow fed by a portion of the sump return. Sort of a poor-man's fluidized bed filter, with the benefit, mainly, of keeping debris from sinking/being sucked into the gravel.

I am reconsidering, either just using the same gravel, or perhaps some combination of gravel and peat/other organic matter for a natural look, foregoing the UG all together.

I keep a SG of about 1.005 +/- .002. I've had luck with plants in the past at this salinity, and would like to use a substrate that would be favorable. Laterite, etc, would be fine except it is too large/coarse, and would end up on top, ruining the effect.

Smaller gravel? Silica sand mixed in? THoughts?
 
Adding organics such as peat in a BW tank is going to adversely affect your KH/alkalinity. I would not do this.

I use aragonite over prefiltered RFUG to keep the substrate clean and to help support the KH/alkalinity of the system.
 
I had considered aragonite sand (southdown). But I currently have some crushed coral included in my gravel and that has been enough to effectively eliminate the ability to grow plants (apparently the roots hate the alkalinity).

It does buffer the water well, but, in bulk, coral or southdown may raise the pH more than I would prefer (at least that's what Neale Monks has suggested to me). My fish tend to be of the more-fresh-than-marine variety, so I would consider aragonite/coral as a component of the substrate, but not exclusively.

Any other thoughts?

PS glad to hear the RFUG with filtered return is plausible if I decidee to go that way
 
I tried mixing peat with my gravel in the first brackish tank I ever tried. I wouldn't try it again. Caused me all kinds of problems, acidity, coloration, foul smell. I lost a bunch of bumblebee gobies after a substrate vacuming and decided to get it out of there. Hell of a job cleaning it out. I was very new to the hobby at the time so there may have been other factors that contributed to my problems but I won't be trying peat in a brackish tank again anytime soon.
 
Chill

thanks for the reply. While the peat may/may not have been a detriment to your bbs, your probs w/regard to the mess/smell seem pretty universal amongst those not intent on planted tanks with no planned substrate perturbment (vacuuming/rearranging/burrowing fish).

The plant-only folks are pretty hardcore with layered substrate and minimal interference in layout once setup.

Any other thoughts on an alternative substrate with a more "earthy" apperance that won't make me regret using it in the future?
 
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