Planter substrate

[mort]

Hi planning on adding some new planters for emersed growth on a new project and was looking for opinions please.
In the past I have just let the roots dangle in the water and the plants have thrived but wanted to neaten it up a little. I will be using 1 litre pond baskets as I have them lying around but im not sure whether the jbl manado I have would be suitable. The tank will be a pretty low flow blackwater tank and without the high flow I'm wondering if the pore structure in the manado will be open enough to prevent any problems. I think it should be fine as manado should be 5cm depth and it's about that to the centre on each side of the proposed planters. I'd rather not buy the hydroponic clay balls if I don't need to but equally don't want to cause any problems by using an unsuitable substrate.

So yay or nay?

 

[kadoxu]

I prefer the hydroponics stuff, but if it doesn't fall of the basket I'd go for it.

 

[mort]

Since they are very similar in composition I think I'm just going to use the manado and maybe look at increasing the circulation around the baskets if I start to s3e problems.

 

[zozo]

Those clayballs are more meant as hygroscopic water retainer it's dense porous structure makes it highly cappilair and defies gravity and suck up water from bellow and still provides sufficient earation to the roots.. It is not realy a hydro-ponic but more a hydro-culture substrate. In hydroponic you can speak of a constant flooded substrate to a certain level or it uses a flood/drain system with a bell syphon. Than actualy you do not absolutely need the hygroscopic substrates because there will be a constant supply of fresh water anyway.. 🙂

If the substrate is permanently submersed you also have no need for this property.. Than it is best to use a coarse porous substrate that has a more active natural circulation providing the roots with oxygenated water. Than a dense porous structure clogs with a biofilm works counter productive in the end even might cuase root or plant base rotting. Fritted glass or lava rock would be a good material for permantly submersed substrate and also a tad cheaper than the baked clay balls or chips like ceramis.
Not that the clayballs don't work, they do, they are of relative large size with lots of space in between, it's just you do not need them and are less effective in permanent submersed use. They are initialy not developed for that idea also.

Emersed plant exclusively depend on their roots if you do not fertilize them with spraying several times a day. And keeping the roots in a perfect healthy condition in a constant submersed fine grained substrate with a dense pore structure can be challanging on the long run.. 🙂

Good luck..