Is plant specific substrate necessary?

[TheFanatic]

Yeah, I want to see this "soil" in the tank. Is it really mud? That sounds nasty. Anyone got any good pics of this.

I have been doing planted tanks for years. Never used plant specific substrate. I have a 55 Angel/Community tank with a pretty fine gravel. I also have a 110 African tank with sand. Here are pics of each. In the 110 I added the sand brand new so I put in root tabs at first to help foster root growth and so the plants can get a good "grip" on the sand. Here are the tanks. The 110. Then the 55 after I removed some plants (now in the 110) because there was no room for the Angels to swim and the 55 before I removed the plants....

 

[oOMO3NOo]

how deep should your substrate be for best plant growth. when u use your root tabs is that a one time thing or is that somthing u keep putting in? any specific root tabs u use


im thinking about doing the same thing with sand caz i have some left over from my 75 gallon and i have a huge snail problem in my gravel im using now so i want to start fresh.