If you made it this far, then you should have good foundation to choose a substrate for your aquarium. My biggest piece of advice is that the substrate should complement the rest of your aquarium, not work against it. So, think hard about what you plan to keep in your aquarium before rushing out and buying the first bag of substrate you see. I've been keeping fish for over 30 years and currently have 4 different aquariums — it's an addiction.
I'm here to teach you everything there is to know about fishkeeping. I also use this site as an excuse to spend lots of money on testing and reviewing different aquarium products!
You can find my reviews here. I keep thinking this is a good idea. I live in Wyoming and have hard water. I want to continue with as many live plants as possible. I agree, planted tanks do look beautiful.
If you want a heavily planted tank then Aqua-soil makes a great substrate, providing nutrients to rooted plants. I use gravel over sand because I keep a lot of live plants. I use peat in my filter sunsun b because natural water in Florida is hard with high Ph. Are you having nitrate spikes in both? With so many products containing different ingredients, narrowing it down is often a test of patience. Am I correct that sand is a suitable substrate?
Or can I use a small size gravel. In the past I have used gravel cleaners for my substrate. How would I maintain a clean substrate when using sand? I would suggest a fine sand. You can modify a gravel vacuum by taping a chopstick or the prong of a plastic fork to the side of the gravel tube.
This way the piece that protrudes out stirs your sand while the end of the gravel vac hovers above, removing any gunk that floats upwards. The exact length of the protrusion will depend on the weight and type of sand. Too far away, and gunk will resettle. Thank you Oil Well Frackers!
Then I realized this substrate was for my cichlids many years ago. We have 4 lovely goldfish we are growing for an outdoor pond.
Thanks for the tip on not having all of the substrate level too. It looks stunning now! Wow, I cannot begin to comprehend how difficult it must be for you with that water.
I love that you named your moss ball. Glad to hear you have had more success swapping the substrate out. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Root Tabs are best for heavy root feeders. Simply poke them next to the plants roots and as they dissolve, they will give your plant a good feed. This way you can use the exact same substrate that you are already, without fiddling around with aquasoil.
Where can I buy it? You should be able to pick up Aquasoil from your local fish store or even online. An alternative is to use a gravel or rock substrate and use root tabs to provide nutrients to your plants. Hi I was wondering could you use root tabs and other types of plant fertilizer to keep soil in your aquarium without having to replace it? Yes, in the same way you could use root tabs and dosing ferts to grow plants in gravel, you could use them to grow in soil that is depleted of nutrients — keep in mind that your aquasoil may turn to mud over time.
Because your gravel is already inside the tank, any extra substrate added is going to add thickness, giving you and your fish less room inside the tank. Present setup with white subway tiles base. What substrate do you recommend?
Your eels on the other hand might have a preferred type of substrate. If I remember correctly, fire eels burrow in the substrate, so a soft sand might be a better option? Do i need to add more sandon top? Filter floss 50um will help remove the free floating stuff. YOu may need to go through a few before it clears, but you can buy a slab for cheap online and cut it to size to fit your filter. I decided to get into dirted tanks at the exact wrong time. Miracle Grow has discontinued their Organic potting mix recommended by Diane Walstad and the leading dirt used by most major dirt tankers.
I ask what to use and they say any old dirt will work. So not my experience. I have red clay and crushed oyster shells as additives. Should I add plain top soil, some kind of organic fert like chicken litter that MG organic was famed for or dolomite. Dynadirt does have limestone which seems to be the only additive.
Any help would be greatly appreciated by my family who are about to have me checked into an asylum for my dirt obsession. I think this is probably a question better asked over at theplantedtank. My 55 aquarium was a goldfish resort, but times change and the tank is now a mollie retreat.
However, given that the substrates are primarily made of organic materials, they break down over time and become very muddy like regular dirt. After one to two years of usage, these substrates also become exhausted of nutrients and will need to be remineralized like dirted tanks. Nutrient-rich substates are commonly used in crystal shrimp tanks and planted aquariums with heavy root feeders, but they must be remineralized with new nutrients on a regular basis and tend to break down over time.
Unlike nutrient-rich substrates, inert substrates come with very few nutrients, which may sound bad at first but keep reading. For example, if you set up your first tank with rainbow gravel from the pet store but later on decide you want to add plants, it will work just fine for most stem, floating, and rhizome plants because they mainly feed from the water column. Just regularly dose an all-in-one liquid fertilizer that contains most of the macronutrients and micronutrients your plants need.
If you decide to add a heavy root feeder like an Amazon sword, simply insert root tabs to convert your inert substrate into a nutrient-rich substrate.
Rhizome, floating, and stem plants primarily absorb nutrients directly from the water column, so keep them well-fed with a comprehensive fertilizer like Easy Green. There are several brands of inert substrates created for planted tanks, such as CaribSea Eco-Complete and Seachem Flourite.
Like aquarium gravel, they do not tend to break down over time and therefore do not need to be replaced over time. Unlike regular aquarium gravel, these substrates are made of volcanic or clay-based gravel that usually have a higher cation exchange capacity CEC.
This simply means the materials are better at holding onto nutrients such as from fish waste or fertilizers so that plants can easily use them for greater growth. Plus, as inert materials, they do not impact the pH, water hardness, or other water parameters in any significant amount. While almost any substrate material can be used to grow aquarium plants, remember to avoid the extremes when it comes to substrate size. Very fine sand is hard on plants because the particles are very small and tend to compact together, making it difficult for the roots to easily penetrate and spread through them.
Bare-bottom setups are ideal for breeding and quarantine tanks. While bare-bottom aquariums are simple to set up and easy to maintain , they are arguably not as aesthetically pleasing to look at compared to an aquarium with substrate on the bottom.
The bottom panel of the aquarium resembles a mirror underwater and reflects light back towards the top of the tank. This is generally unappealing to look at. Adding substrate in the aquarium will give the tank a more natural look. Another advantage of using substrates is that they can act as a home for beneficial bacteria to grow on. These bacteria will help with the nitrogen cycle, converting toxic ammonia eventually into nitrates.
Learn more about the importance of cycling your tank by clicking here. Tanks with no substrate lose a huge amount of potential surface area for these microorganisms to attach to. Also, certain fish and other tankmates benefit from having a substrate in the aquarium.
Bottom-feeders like Corydoras and loaches typically feel safer with soft substrates and love interacting with them. There exists so many different sizes, shapes, and colors of substrates to choose from for your planted aquarium, but most fall under three types: gravel, sand, and soil. This section will go over each of their strengths and weaknesses. Gravel consists of stones that range from tiny pebbles to small river stones.
It can even be a mix of many different sizes and types of rocks. Some hobbyists prefer a more natural appearance for their aquarium and choose a gravel type that better suits that look.
Others may want more pops of color in their tanks and choose artificial gravels that come in colors like blue, green, pink, etc. Black crushed lava gravel from Buce Plant. One advantage of having gravel in the aquarium is that it allows for live aquatic plants to be planted into it with the addition of root tabs. While gravel is not the best substrate for a fully planted tank because it does not provide minerals to help plant growth , it can help anchor the plants down and is not too dense for roots to spread throughout the bottom of the aquarium.
Gravel is inert , meaning it does not change the water parameters of the aquarium it is in. Some hobbyists prefer this because they want their parameters to remain the same. Gravel will most likely not get kicked up in aquariums with strong flow or sucked up by siphons during maintenance because of its weight and size.
However, because of the size of gravel, there exists spaces between the stones where debris can fall into. Fish waste and uneaten food tend to get trapped in gravel, so it is important to vacuum this type of substrate during routine water changes.
Sand is a much finer and softer version of gravel. It is made up of tiny particles of rocks, shells, and other earthly materials. Since the granules are so tiny, sand makes the ideal substrate for bottom-feeding fish or fish with soft bellies. The extra fine particles feel much softer compared to other substrates. Common colors include white, black, and light brown.
Natural sand from Buce Plant. Since sand is very fine, it compacts together so tightly that the debris from the aquarium stays on top of the sand. However, sand is light enough to get sucked up into the siphon along with the detritus, so use extra caution when siphoning to avoid removing too much sand from the tank.
You may have to add in more sand after every water change to fill in some bald spots. Furthermore, sand can occasionally get kicked up into the water and proceed to get sucked into filters and pumps, potentially damaging the equipment.
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