Manado subsyrate

[Irons]

I'm buying to setup a fully planted, easy plants, lowtech no co2 200l aquarium. A friend gave me 10l of red jbl manado substrate he had lying around, has anybody had any experience with it and more importantly, will it grow plants!

 

[Shuster]

I'm buying to setup a fully planted, easy plants, lowtech no co2 200l aquarium. A friend gave me 10l of red jbl manado substrate he had lying around, has anybody had any experience with it and more importantly, will it grow plants!

Hi,

First of all good luck ))

Regarding the gravel...

It depends on "what are you wish to grow?"

The graver on the pic is similar to JBL...
But seachem's...
No ferts
Co2 yeast

Second pic is non co2 and nor ferts tank

Both mine btw (approximately 10 years ago)

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[Jack B]

I used it with aquasoil underneath. If I had my time again I'd only use the Mandano as a cosmetic toplayer and use mostly aquasoil. I spend a lot on root tabs.

 

[mort]

I used it with both aquasoil underneath and on its own and the plants have grown fine. There are two main schools of thought if you read enough on this forum, 1. proper planting substrates are definitely needed for optimum plant growth 2. you can use inert substrates and get good plant growth provided you add nutrients somehow.
For me I just partially EI dose and add the occasional root tab, which works fine in my lower tech tanks. It's not the easiest substrate to plant in because it's lite and not that grippy. If you are going the high tech root or need to change plants more frequently you may be better of with something else.

 

[Irons]

Thanks for the reply everyone, and yes it will be all easy plants lots of crypts etc and a lowtech heavily planted setup, I only have 10l so I might mix it with 15l of aqua soil maybe tropica etc, I will be lightly doseing seachem ferts, so hopefully it will workout, thankyou again for all your knowledge, cheers👍

 

[Shuster]

Thanks for the reply everyone, and yes it will be all easy plants lots of crypts etc and a lowtech heavily planted setup, I only have 10l so I might mix it with 15l of aqua soil maybe tropica etc, I will be lightly doseing seachem ferts, so hopefully it will workout, thankyou again for all your knowledge, cheers

Crypts need iron under the roots ***
Give the root tabs and they will thrive mate

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[Irons]

Thanks for that, someone told me to crush up grape leaves and place in the root layer where the crypts will be planted, has anybody ever heard of that? 🤔

 

[mort]

Not something I've personally heard but I'm curious as to the persons reasonings. My initial thoughts would be that it won't do that much compared to fertilisers and that the breakdown would be a very slow release of very small amounts of nutrients.

 

[Irons]

It releases iron, Bentley pascoe mentioned it, just wondered if anybody had used or heard of it, surely a good source tho👍

 

[Irons]

He mentioned laying them on top of seachem fluorite red and then a top layer.

 

[Welearn]

I have the Manado Dark substrate in my 45l, it has a high content of iron which over time levels out.
I find it's ok for plants, pending on your own choices. One problem I find is, as someone mentioned that is not the easiest to hold plants down due to its lightness. You can use a soil base underneath or on its own.

 

[mort]

It releases iron, Bentley pascoe mentioned it, just wondered if anybody had used or heard of it, surely a good source tho👍

Tbh I've not heard of him. It's true the leaves will release iron but I just don't think at a level where it will really help the plants when compared to a fertiliser. A few leaves just won't do much, you would need a vast amount to make any real impact. At least that's my gut feeling.

 

[Irons]

He's American, he knows alot about aquatic plants, spks for a Boston club, we were specifically talking about crypts only, and he mentioned it to me, sounds strange but he's def a good source, but yeh I totally understand where your coming from, I'm not sure I would want to go to the trouble of doing it, but there must be something in it. 👍

 

[Irons]

Sorry he's from seattle not Boston.