I currently have coarse gravel covering the bottom of my planted tank. I kinda feel like my plants will plateau due to this substrate choice (I had the substrate before I became interested in live plants). I never felt like making the total revamp to a new substrate. I'm even thinking of possibly getting a new substrate to layer under the gravel. I'm looking for your opinions, preferably from experience, about what substrate you would choose for a lush tank and why.
Best substrate for planted tanks and why
- Thread starter swede
- Start date
I like the finer substrates like Sera's Floredepot and Seachem's Onyx Sand. Flourite and Eco-Complete are nice as well, but my plants have seemed to develop a much stronger root structure in the sand.
I've got sand in one tank and I've got Flourite and medium gravel in another. I find the Flourite works much better than sand in my own tanks. The sand is too easy for fish to move and uproot the plants. Plus the rock seems to hold down the plants better.
I use 60% gravel and 40% flourite medium black plants seem to root very well allowing me easily move or adjust as necessary and the fish dont seem to move the plants as much as when I have used sand in the past
eco-complete i great stuff. finer than fluorite, but larger than sand. kind of an in between size. the black color also makes plants and fish stand out more.
i've gotta hunt down somewhere in the orlando area to get some of this stuff. you pay almost as much for the shipping as you do the product for this type of product.
I have sand in my 55gal, plants grow well, wish they grew a bit faster. But for my next tank I am going to use a flourite or a liker substrate for my next planted.
bump..... i want more opinions..... even though i already ordered 2 bags of carib-sea floramax last week