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Going to redo my current 55g in a few weeks to accomodate live plants properly and wanted some substrate guidance.

I'm going to use Soilmasters Select as it's the same as AquariumPlants Own Substrate yet is several cheaper.

Should I use this alone OR will adding some 3M Color Quartz Aggregate (which I'd like to do) on top be ok?

The total substrate depth I'm going for is 3" all over.

Narcicius

Can't help you at all, but post how it goes b/c I'm trying to get some live plants too.

sirdarksol

You should be fine adding a decorative substrate over the plantable substrate. The only issue I would foresee is if the 3M stuff begins to settle under the Soilmasters. Not sure how the two would interact. This won't hurt anything, but you might not get the look you wanted.
For example, I have a tank with Fluorite and Caribbean Moon black sand. I layered the sand on top of the fluorite, because the sand was there just for appearance.
Well, within a month, some of the larger bits of the fluorite, which are less dense than the sand, I guess, started showing up on top of the sand. The effect is pretty neat, as there are little red flecks on the black sand, but I didn't expect it.

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Cool. I'm thinking if I don't bother with the 3M quartz, I'll do a 3" layer with just the Soilmaster but if the Soilmaster stuff isn't dark enough, then I'll do a 2" layer of it and 1" of the 3M quartz.

I don't think there would be a problem with them interacting as the 3M quartz is inert.

sirdarksol

What I meant was more like what happened with my tank, where the two mix together, rather than staying as separate layers.

≈ D ≈

Ahh understood, my bad

If that does happen further down the line, it won't bother me. May even look neat

Do you think I should give the Soilmaster a rinse before putting it in the tank or would I be wasting my time?