Nano Substrate

[jameson_uk]

I am looking for advise on substrate choice for a 30cm nano cube that is going to house a betta.

Tank is going to be low tech and plants I am definitely look at are

• Moss Ball(s)
• Bucephalandra 'Wavy Green' (or perhaps another Buce species)
• Ceratopteris Thalictroides (I will probably end up floating this)
  
• Cryptocoryne Willsi

and then some sort of stem (or two in the background).

I am not sure there is much point in going for an active soil as water here is hard so it will get exhausted and I don't really have the inclination to swap it every x months / years. (and I don't see any particular need for this as the plants should all be easy to grow and shouldn't need much ferts anyway?)

So this then got me thinking about a couple of different options

• Clay based (Eco-Complete / Flourite) etc.
• Soil
• Plain old inert sand

What I am not sure if the implications of the non sand options. I have seen various conflicting reports as to whether Eco-Complete and / or Flourite actually buffer the water and change chemistry and whether these high CEC substrates are actually worth it in this sort of low tech setup?

Then when I came to look at soils I am seeing people talking about several inches of substrate (and sometimes more). Given the tank is only 30cm tall I don't really want 50% of it to be substrate!!! Would sort of depth do you actually need for a soil substrate and is it advisable to cap it? Also what is the shelf life of a soil substrate? Would this actually get exhausted or not?

 

[castle]

Tropica Soil Powder is really quite good. A bit of a premium, but very good growth for me and looks really nice in my 60cm tank (which I kinda see as a nano).

 

[techfool]

I like tropica soil powder too. I have three aquariums and the one I started with the soil powder is doing very well. It kicks up a lot of dust to start with but that does filter out/settle down.
I've mixed it with unipac sand in one aquarium and have used it to deepen the substrate in another. No problem with that.
I think most of these Japanese clay granule soils are v similar so I would go with whatever's readily available to you. As for exhaustion, nothing lasts forever except gravel and my plants hated that.

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

There's still the option of the Tesco cat litter when washed many, many times. I still use and re-use it when doing little setups that are intended to be stripped down at some point. After use I was it and put in a bucket for the next project. Supposedly has high CEC, extremely cheap when comparing to made for purpose substrates and has a reddy/brown clay looking colour.
I usually put a little sprinkling of osmocote under it to have some nutrients from the off.

 

[jameson_uk]

Tropica Soil Powder is really quite good. A bit of a premium, but very good growth for me and looks really nice in my 60cm tank (which I kinda see as a nano).

I have Tropica soil (not the powder) in my shrimp tank but this is active. I can't remember exact values but the soil drops my pH from around 7.8 to much nearer 7 (and I guess adjust hardness too). My concern is this is going to run out once this buffering capacity is used up and pH will jump throwing the tank out of sync and upsetting the inhabitants.

Does the powder turn to mush at all?

 

[Henry]

My concern is this is going to run out once this buffering capacity is used up and pH will jump throwing the tank out of sync and upsetting the inhabitants.

It won't happen overnight, so it's nothing to worry about.

Soil is excellent for low tech tanks; all that I've set up with soil have thrived. A bed of a couple of inches is plenty, just make sure you cap it with a decent layer of fine gravel or coarse sand.

Fine gravel with root tabs or osmocote works well too.