Substrate advice required please

[livewire]

Hello everyone,

I am looking to change to a planted substrate and need some help, I have Corydoras so they need to be catered for; What I have been thinking so far is;

1. ADA AS capped with plane fine black gravel (worried about this option because of my fully stocked tank and the ammonia spike! also pulling the AS to the surface if re arranging the tank)
2. Eco Complete capped with plane fine black gravel (this should not cause an ammonia spike, and if mixed with the gravel will be unnoticeable)
3. Eco Complete/Flourite mix capped with fine black gravel (I was thinking the Flourite will give the Eco Complete a bit more kick?)
4. Colombo Flora Base capped with fine black gravel (worried that this may mix with the gravel if disturbed)

I will attempt to scape my tank but it will more than likly turn into a jungle because here is a picture of how it looked a short while ago before I tore it all out. (I now have a plain black background, have upgraded lighting to T5's and am running an inline diffuser so the tank looks a little different)

Any help or advice would be great

Dan

 

[livewire]

Well I am surprised no one offered any advice but its cool.

I have decided to go with Eco Complete (fine grain) on its own, I will use some of my existing gravel to give some height were I want it.
ADA Aqua Soil was my original favorite but I don't want the hassle of dealing with the ammonia spike, or having the soil mix with the black gravel in the future so Eco Complete it is.

 

[Ady34]

You could of course have a dedicated plant substrate area, but also have a nice sand bed for your corydoras.....although sods law dictates they would most likely ignore the sand bed in favour of mixing it up with the plants
Lovely tank btw, look forward to your next, will you be documenting it on the forum? Keep us updated anyway.
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[livewire]

You could of course have a dedicated plant substrate area, but also have a nice sand bed for your corydoras.....although sods law dictates they would most likely ignore the sand bed in favour of mixing it up with the plants
Lovely tank btw, look forward to your next, will you be documenting it on the forum? Keep us updated anyway.
Cheerio,
Ady.

Thanks for the kind comment

The only problem with the dedicated plant substrate area is that I tend to put plants all over the place, lol (not a scaper me) I will get a journal sorted on here once I get it all started.

Do you think if I list all the plants I have or want to use I could get advice on where to place them? also I have a load of landscape rock that I would like to use.

 

[Ady34]

Do you think if I list all the plants I have or want to use I could get advice on where to place them? also I have a load of landscape rock that I would like to use.

Yeah, either pop a new post in the aquascaping sub forum or do it when you start a journal