Pike35

I recenty got a 10 gallon tank all setup and stocked but I used all plastic plants to decorate, now I'm wanting to replace those with live plants, my question is this, I used 3 gravels mixed together, small black rock, small white rock, and a larger maybe 1/4 inch size tan or natural color. What would i have to do as far as the gravel goes to accept plants? I've been reading and it seems as though all of the plants i'm looking at use something called substrate, can i add the right soil whatever i need to a tank with fish setup And how do i go about it?

Thanks

Gunnie

Substrate is just what you have on the bottom of your tank whether it's gravel, sand, river rock, etc. You can have live plants in just about any type of substrate. Each substrate has its pros and cons. A lot of folks are using and like a relatively new substrate called eco complete which is supposed to contain nutrients for your plants, you don't have to wash it first, it's black which a lot of folks like, and it's supposed to contain bacteria to help cycle the tank faster. It's also about $20.00 a bag compared to $3.00 or $4.00 for regular gravel. Here's a great article written by Off-Ice who also now posts here to get you started. It will answer a lot of your questions and show you how easy it can be to have live plants in your tank:

http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=17