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Flourite or tropica substrate

David1970

New Member
Joined
1 Jul 2021
Messages
7
Location
Renfrewshire Scotland
What substrate is everyone using? I have a 230ltr tank. I'm looking at tropica substrate or seachem flourite black, flourite is so expensive how do people use this under gravel where your plants are or full bottom of tank. Any advice on any other substrate I'm all ears as a total beginner in aquascaping
 
What substrate is everyone using? I have a 230ltr tank. I'm looking at tropica substrate or seachem flourite black, flourite is so expensive how do people use this under gravel where your plants are or full bottom of tank. Any advice on any other substrate I'm all ears as a total beginner in aquascaping
@David1970 Are you planning to inject CO2 ? if not, any decent inert gravel will do. I use Red Eco-Complete in both my low-tech tanks. Cheap, and plants are thriving just great. However, if your planning to inject CO2 investing in a more refined premium substrate that better holds on to nutrients is generally recommended given the much, much higher demand for nutrients in an injected tank. But you can do just fine either way.

Welcome to UKAPS! :)

Cheers,
Michael
 
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Yeah planning co2 Michael, also looking to get plants organised want everything here before I start been a while since I've had a fresh water tank.
 
Yeah planning co2 Michael, also looking to get plants organised want everything here before I start been a while since I've had a fresh water tank.
@David1970 Well, from what I can tell, you don't need a whole lot of the under gravel substrate (perhaps 1-2 cm) which you usually add a thick layer of gravel on top off. Alternatively, you can also go with soil - such as Tropica soil. With that you don't need an under gravel layer. Expensive though. Besides this section, I would look around in the Planted tank gallery and Journals for inspiration (lots of top notch scapes there) - If you see something you like you can ask what it is, if it's not listed up. At the end of the day you wan't the gravel or soil to meet your aesthetic demands as well. It's one of the things you want to get right from the beginning for obvious reasons.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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I'm using Flourite Red in one of my tanks, price-wise, fortunately, a very small tank... But I find it the most attractive and natural-looking substrate I ever used.

But I get it!? To fill up a 230 litre (100x50cm bottom?) would be quite an investment... Not really in my budget, but if so, I wouldn't think twice. :)
 
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