Need help choosing a substrate

[chrisfraser05]

As in the title I'm needing some advice on substrates.

I've been reading up on all the different ones on here and what they do, I've read about capping them with other substrates etc...

What I am looking for is something that has the texture/colour of potting compost as I would like the natural river bed look and don't fancy seperating layers when moving plants.

I would be heavly planting a 2-300lt tank with CO2, High lighting and will be dosing the water column.

Cost isn't really an issue but a cheaper substrate that does the same job leaves more money for fish


cheers, chris

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Hi,

For the natural river look, you could literally use anything, soils, gravels, mulms, ok, not mulms, but you get what I mean.

Seachem do some complete substrates that are not soil to touch, but can look earthy and are good for plants. Normally I would say go for aquasoil, but there are many questions you need to ask.
Is it a planted tank or a fish tank with plants?
Will you be keeping botia or cory's? If yes, then perhaps aquasoil should be avoided, and you should be looking for natural tonal gravel mixing some graded gravel in will make it look natural.
And are you putting fish in strait away? You cant do this with aquasoils, but you can with gravels and a mature filter.

Cheers.

 

[chrisfraser05]

I'd be tempted to go for a soil compost mix but wasn't sure quite how well it would work in an aquarium.

It will pretty much be a planted tank with fish but I think there will be a variety of fish if you know what I mean. Certainly stocking levels will be on the lean side and will be stocked with the plants in mind not planted according to fish choice.

I doubt I would be going for corys in this tank as I have them in my small tank. I will be using shrimp and Khuli loaches as bottom feeders/cleaners.

Stocking the tank can wait for months if need be as I will be allowing plenty time for the plants to grow in and will be doing a full fishless cycle therefore any substrate based ammo spike can be delt with. I'll seed the filter with some of the bio balls from my eheim on the 80lt to speed it up a little though.

Do you think I'd see good results with topsoil and potting compost or will it turn to mud and cloud the water?

cheers, chris

 

[ceg4048]

Do you think I'd see good results with topsoil and potting compost or will it turn to mud and cloud the water?

Topsoil grows plants just fine but it's so messy, why bother? If you intend to dose the water column then it's really pointless to worry about the substrate. If cost is not an issue then Aquasoil Amazonia or the Oliver Knott equivalent should be considered because it's easily as potent as the compost/topsoil without the mess, it looks nicer and it feels great to the touch. It's like velvet and this is why I personally consider it the best. When you stick you hand into AS it feels smooth, while other substrates attck your hand. If you're in this hobby then you will have you hand in the tank often so Amazonia is a top choice.

Again, if you intend to use water column dosing, then you can easily use any inert substrate without the worry of capping and so forth. You can use a simple clay product such as Akadama (which there is a sticky at the top of the page).

Cheers,