Substrate for Planted Tanks

Hello everyone! I am pretty new to the site and I just got my first aquarium today! YAY! It is huge, I wasn't planning on getting that big of an aquarium. It is 58 gallons but very compact. I will post some pics soon. Well, I would really like to have a planted tank. Exactly what kind of substrate do I need? Do I just get gravel or is there something else I put under the gravel? If so, how do I vacuum it without the bottom layer coming up? Sorry for so many questions. One more though, for the cycling process, would it be ok to use Corys? Thanks for any responses you can give! ???

Eskimo

 

Welcome to FishLore! You can pretty much use any substrate for a planted tank! Some types are easier to clean than others. When you mix substrates and have layers, folks don't deep clean those and usually only hover their gravel vac over the top. If you use gravel, you can deep clean it and just don't get more than a couple of inches from the roots. There is a substrate called Eco Complete that is more expensive than regular gravel, but is especially made for planted tanks. You can vacuum it, and it's supposed to have nutrients helpful to plants. It's also black and beautiful in the tank.

 

as far as I'm concerned corys r not good cylcling fish they finicking and ther harder to feed sometimes wen ther r no other fish in the tank do a fishless cyle

 

Thanks ATM. I missed that. I totally agree. Don't cycle with cory cats. They are too delicate to cycle with. Why not go ahead and set up your tank with live plants and do a fishless cycle?

 

I think that the types of plants should determine the type of substrate(s) you use. Some plants need elaborate maintenance while others hardly need anything. Some plants need a good substrate (and various fertilizers plus CO2 provision) where they can grow their roots and thrive, other plants can be simply attached to a rock or a driftwood and therefore don't need any substrates. Some plants don't have high lighting requirements while others need high wattage bulbs in order to grow well.

If you want a low maintenance planted tank, you could get some Anubias, Java Ferns, and Java Moss, all of which are commonly known to be easy to maintain and they can all be attached to decor, therefore not requiring any special substrates. Regular lighting will do for them as well. They will grow. However, if you really want them to thrive, you could get regular double light strips, or some other higher wattage light strips - it all depends on your wallet when talking about low light plants. But there are kinds of plants that must be provided with strong lighting and CO2, otherwise they die. So be careful when buying plants.

Another thing is that plants are good competitors for algae. The more plants you have, the less algae you have. And all these plants can be low light. You can be adding iron fertilizers for plants to grow better - but these iron fertilizers also provide nutrients for algae and you can unintentionally cause algal blooms. So you have to be careful about that too. Besides, iron fertilizers are also commercial products that - like many other commercial products - will unnecessarily contribute to the dangerous osmotic pressure.

 

If you are going to get corys and other catfish its probably best if you get finer gravel or sand so they can dig/burrow without hurting themselves. I have quite corse gravel but will change it to finer stuff when I get my new tank

 

to do a fishless cycle don't forget to "feed" the bacteria! you could let it sit w/o "food" for a year and it still woudlnt get cycled bcause the bacteria don't have anything to grow on. So you can use fish food, or you can do pure ammonia in small amounts

 

I am a complete believer in a fishless cycle - it's not that tough to wait for the fish either. Give you time to set up your tank exactly how you want it as well. I used the cocktail shrimp method to get my ammonia up - its working great, I couldn't find pure not scented ammonia in my area.


The water gets a little smelly for a bit, but it goes away once the nitrates kick in. I used a shrimp for a week, removed it, and then fed my tank shrimp pellets, removing them after a day or two for new ones, and I'm nearly done. 3 weeks and I should be all done soon. Good luck.

 

Thank you everyone for all of your replies! I really needed the help. Sorry I haven't been replying back for a while. 
For the fishless cycle, I just add plants? Do I put ammonia in or food?
Thanks again for all of your help! 

Eskimo

 

Plants can be there and its your choice whether you want to use food or pure ammonia

 

Live plants are far better than fake ones. First of all, they produce oxygen necessary for fish. Second, they are natural water purifiers - they remove heavy metals from water that are otherwise very dangerous to fish. Thirdly, they help remove toxic ammonia and nitrites as well as use fish and food waste as their nutrients. I cannot find ONE reason why plants wouldn't be great in any tank. But do not use demanding plants if you have standard lighting - for that, low-light plants are best.

 

Thanks again! One more question. Should I mix Eco Complete with Flourite? Some guy at a pet store told me to do that. Does it help? He said that they are meant to mix together because they don't have the proper nutrients to support plants by themselves. Is this true? Thanks

Eskimo

 

Flourite and eco-complete are meant to be used alone. they are complete substrates in themselves.
I don't think anyone gave you anybeginners info so here is a good place to start. Fishless cycling is much more humane
Carol

 

Thanks again for the advice. Do you think Eco Complete or Flourite is better?

Eskimo

 

I have never used the flourite so I can't say how good it is, but I really like my eco-complete.
Carol

 

I have a 90 gallon that I'm adding plants to. It has aragonite sand for substrate, which obviously isn't very rich in nutrients. I've had a few plants for a couple months and they're all growing roots above the substrate, like all the way up the stalks. I assume this is because they're not getting enough nutrients from the substrate. I've put those flourish tabs by the roots twice now, but I'm wondering if that is enough (I also add the liquid fertilizer to the water). They haven't grown much since I put them in there. I've pruned them, but they grow back shorter. ?? For light I have 2 65watt compact fluorescent bulbs. I'm sure there is plenty of CO2 because the tank is fully stocked (4 blood parrots, 4 angels, 1 black ghost knife, 1 pictus cat, 7 giant danios). Is there something I can do besides replacing the substrate? I really like the look if the sand. Ps. My plants are all low-light plants: java fern, anubia, water wisteria, amazon sword (which may have a little higher light requirement, but is actually doing better than most of the other plants), and moss balls.

 

The only heavy root feeder in your list of plants is the amazon sword. Replacing the substrate won't do as much as increasing lighting IMO. Also, java fern and anubias are slow growers IME.

 

You definitely have to increase your lighting.
Here is a small article about basic light needs for fish and plants:

 

I actually am selling my saltwater tank and so that light will be freed up. Its a 4 bulb T5 HO. I'll have to get plant bulbs, but it should be enough light right? Does that mean I'll have to do CO2 injection too cuz I was hoping to avoid that? I read somewhere that as you increase lighting you have to increase fertilizer and CO2.

 

That's correct. You need to balance ferts/CO2 and lighting to avoid algae. Flourish Excel is a good supplement if you don't want to inject CO2

 

I use Flourish Excel. Also, as long as you have a healthy light spectrum, you shouldn't have algae problems, besides, the snails you will inherit when you add live plants to the tank will help keep any algae to a minimum.

 

That's correct. You need to balance ferts/CO2 and lighting to avoid algae. Flourish Excel is a good supplement if you don't want to inject CO2

Excel can be costly for larger tanks though.

 

Is CO2 injection expensive? Is there a low-cost low-tech way to do it? I'd imagine you have to continuously purchase the CO2 in whatever form from somewhere. Also, wouldn't heavily stocking the tank acheive the same thing?

 

Excel can be costly for larger tanks though.

CO2 injection refills and the initial set up cost quite a bit in the beginning to. Maybe DIY CO2 is the best bet.

 

Any suggestions on where to start with the DIY?

 

Here you go.

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfi...tions-for-setting-up-a-diy-co2-system.104443/

 

Doing DIY co2 on a 90 gallon tank is going to be a lot of work. You will need at least 2 setups going, each with its own diffuser and multiple reactors. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it; only that it will be a lot of work. If it were me, I would try to shoot for medium light and avoid co2. Swords can grow in medium light. You might be able to get away with half dosing on excel to reduce the cost.

 

That DIY system was a lot more straight-forward and simpler than the others I've been looking at. So it seems I need 8 2-liters. I'm sure I can rig that up. It's the reactor part i'm not diggin'. The article says you can just stuff cotton into the end of the airline tubing. Would that work? Would I need 8 lines going into my tank then, or should I group em by 2s and have 4 lines running in? I definitely need CO2. I found a CO2 calculator online
according to it my levels are 2.26ppm! Target is 15-35ppm. No wonder my plants aren't doing well! I'm also going to try a Freshwater DSB as I have some experience with then in saltwater and it says they do increase CO2 levels a well as lower nitrates.

 

I have a 35 gallon tank that's been running for a couple months with low light plants but I wanted to get other types of plants that need more things so I have ordered a t5 HO hood with 4x24 6500k HO bulbs and am going to use diy co2 but I don't have a substrate and would prefer not to have to take everything out of the tank and put in new substrate because the tank is already cycled and has fish so instead of changing the substrate could I use root tabs? And also does the lighting seem like too much light should I only use 3 bulbs? I will have some floating plants too Thanks!!

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What kind of plants are you aiming for (ex-med-high light)? I only ask cause some plants can have too much light. Others will grow insanely fast under excessive light and you will have to trim them a lot. Also be careful that the floating plants do not block all the light for the plants below. My 2 cents from my experience.

I am no light expert and have never had t5 HO bulbs but have heard amazing things about them. What are the dimensions of a 35G? I'm assuming since the bulbs are 24", the tank is about 30" long? It seems like a lot but hopefully someone will chime in on that aspect.

Planted tanks can be a lot of work but worth it IMO. You mention having no substrate? If that's the case then I would add something. The fancier plant substrates are nice (and expensive), but are really only there for rooted plants, which I'm assuming you might want. What plants are you looking to get btw? If you have a substrate, you could "cap" it. It depends what you have and what plants you want. Some rooted plants will even grow in sand. Plant tabs are good for gravel and sand purposes, as well as other inert substrates.

What's the tank setup? Best of luck!

 

I'm thinking of medium light plants I have some low light plants at the moment and a medium light plant that's not doing to good due to my low light t8's. The tank is 32 inches long and 18 inches deep I have sand for substrate I have amazon sword plants, java moss, anubias nana, anacharis, and dwarf pennywort that isn't doing to good because off my low light the fish are 3 bolivian rams, 6 kuhlI loaches and 6 dwarf neon rainbowfish.

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safe t sorb

 

4 will be too much light. You would most likely run into Green Spot Algae problems. I personally would only do 2. T5HO lights put out much more light then standard light tubes. I use the Aquaticlife fixtures which is a good fixture. What light fixture are you looking at?

You don't need a special substrate. It is more a personnel preference. You can use root tabs for your root feeders; Swords and Crypts. You will also need water column fertilizers; Macro (NPK) and Micro Mix ( Trace Elements). You are going to want the whole Flourish line of products except the Trace Elements as the is watered down Flourish Comprehensive. It would be even better to look into Dry Fertilizers.

 

The fixture is an Odyssea 2x24 t5 HO. Would only 2 bulbs be enough light? I keep getting and reading different things about lighting so I'm a mess rightnow its all confusing I was gonna buy a 2x24 t5 HO light fixture but people said this would be too little light to be using co2 and using ferts

How do you use dry ferilizers? And where do you get them ive been thinking about using them.

 

The fixture is an Odyssea 2x24 t5 HO. Would only 2 bulbs be enough light? I keep getting and reading different things about lighting so I'm a mess rightnow its all confusing I was gonna buy a 2x24 t5 HO light fixture but people said this would be too little light to be using co2 and using ferts

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Hiw do you use dry ferilizers? And where do you get them ive been thinking about using them.

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That fixture does pretty well in my tank. The only issue is that my tank is 22" deep. At 18" I think you would be sitting comfortably in the medium light range. Dry ferts are just that, powdered fertilizer. The dose for your tank can be calculated online and all you have to do is add the fertilizer to your tank. It is recommended that you mix the powders in a separate container until they are fully dissolved and then add the liquid back into the tank.

 

With the 2x24 or 4x24 ? Would co2 still help with the 2x24 ? Or would there be too little light ? And thank you ill look into dry fertilizers do you know where I could get them or if they sell them on ebay?

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With the 2x24 or 4x24 ? Would co2 still help with the 2x24 ? Or would there be too little light ? And thank you ill look into dry fertilizers do you know where I could get them or if they sell them on ebay?

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CO2 will always help. If you don't have a lot of light then just simply dial back the CO2. I was originally going to get dry fertilizers and I might still. The site that I was looking at is listed below. There are two methods that can be used. The EI method pretty much loads the tank with nutrients so that your plants have whatever they need. At the end of the week, do a big water change and then start again. The other method is the same as how you administer any regular fertilizer. It comes with two bottles and you mix the solutions for them. They have a bunch of information on the site that should explain everything about the dry fertilizers.

 

A quad fixture for the height of your tank will be too much light. Stick with just a duel.

https://www.fishlore.com/encyclopediaaquariumplants.htm

I buy my dry ferts from Green Leaf Aquariums and I use measuring spoons and throw in the tank. Pretty simple. Dosing Macros and Micros on alternate days.

 

Will I be able to grow medium light plants with just a duel? Thanks ill look into the ferts

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I use 2 Duel Aquaticlife fixtures on my 120 gallon planted tank; 48x24x24. The Aquaticlife is a very good fixture as each bulb has it's own reflector as the Odyssey does not. I keep forgetting that not all HO fixtures are top quality. Odyssey is one of them but they do the job.....like what you said 2-3 bulbs should be plenty for what you want to grow. I just don't want you to have algae issues. Want you to be successful.