Potted Plants

[mike_low3]

Hi There,

I have a bare tank that I'd like to add some plants to and I thought I might add some potted plants, I'd like to just buy the plants seperately and add them to some spare terracota pots I have, but I'm not sure what to put in the pots as a substrate, is there an aquatic soil I could buy or do people use something else when potting up aquatic plants ?

Cheers
Mike

 

[Themuleous]

Just out of interest, will the terracotta pots be visible or completely buried in the substrate?

Sam

 

[mike_low3]

They will be visable as the tank is bare bottom

 

[Dan Crawford]

There are a few options you could choose from.

ADA Aqua Soil - uber rich aquatic plant substrate (will create an ammonia spike depending on the size of the tank)

Nature Soil - very similar to the above (with no ammonia spike)

Tropica Aquacare Substrate beneath a thick layer of gravel or sand.

Plain Gravel or Sand - You will need to dose the water column to supply the plants with enough nutrients since they can't get any from the inert substrate.

Aquatic Soil - Meant for ponds but is certainly suitable in an aquarium, especially potted. I'd cap it with a layer of gravel though.

All will do a grand job but if it were me, i'd go for the Aqua Soil.

Hope this helps.

 

[Superman]

Just becareful when you've filled the pots, I had eco complete in some and there was the standard hole in the bottom of the pots. When I lifted all the eco-complete came pouring out of the hole! Doh!

 

[rawr]

I've always thought about doing something like that!

I would treat it like any other substrate system, except you're just limiting it to the pot rather than the whole tank. I would recommend ADA Aquasoil if the tank isn't already set up, or Oliver Knott's Naturesoil which seems to be getting good feedback.

 

[mike_low3]

Thanks for all the reply's

The tanks already setup with some fish in it, it's just a bare bottomed tank that I'm using as a quarantine tank for various tropical fish, I'm not adding chemicals or anything, just like to add some plants to give them some hiding places etc, so thought I would pot up a few amazon swords etc.
I've looked at some of these substrates and they're rather expensive to buy, I'm only looking at 4/5 pots max so I'll maybe look at the less expensive options !
Cheers
Mike