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Substrate

2K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  Mr Grumpy 
#1 ·
What is the best substrate to use with a planted Betta 20gal aquarium?
 
#3 ·
Welcome to the Forum!

No rough gravel or other rough substrate if you plan on having bottom dwellers. For a 20 gallon you would need aroud 40 pounds of substrate.

I use sand supplemented with root tabs and liquid water column ferts. Substrate like the uber expensive "complete" ones eventually deplete so you have to supplement, anyway. And they do nothing for non-rooted plant like Hornwort or floating plants so you need water column ferts.
 
#4 ·
Going lo-tech, and easy, I had the best luck with sand substrate. I've used gravel, eco-complete, sand, and organic soil with sand cap.

Gravel: PRO. it's really easy and fast to use. Just give it a good rinse and then put it in the tank. CON. My plants never thrived in it even using root tabs and liquid fertilizer.

Eco-Complete: PRO Again it's easy to use. You don't even need to rinse it, just put it in the tank.
CON, It's very expensive and for the price I paid my plants didn't do as well as I thought they should, once the fertilizer in it is gone you need to use root tabs.

Sand: PRO, My plants do great in it, my cory cats love it, it's relatively easy to keep clean, and depending on which brand you get it can be cheap.
CON, nearly every brand of sand needs to be cleaned, if you do not clean it, and do a through job cleaning it, you will have a sediment cloud in your tank, and that sediment cloud will coat everything even after it settles down. It's inert meaning you will need root tabs and liquid fertilizer right off the bat.

Organic Soil with cap, PRO, plants LOVE it, cory cats and other bottom dwellers also do good with it. It's meant to have a bit of a dirty look but is still easy to clean. It's not that expensive to set up and it should be self sustaining so root tabs shouldn't be needed.
CON, it's a bit of a pain to set up, the wood and perlite need to be gotten out of the soil, and the sand (if it's used for the cap) needs to be cleaned. Follow the instructions on how to properly set one up, or you might end up like I did when I first tried on, hating the tank and regretting I ever even heard about natural planted tanks. You'll need a great light, and a proper balance of plants, or you will likely end up growing algae till you want to pull out your hair.
 
#5 ·
Hi

Gravel: PRO. it's really easy and fast to use. Just give it a good rinse and then put it in the tank. CON. My plants never thrived in it even using root tabs and liquid fertilizer.
Was that due to the substrate or lighting and what type of plants CO2?

I only ask this because I seem to be able to grow plants in fine gravel with just root tabs and Seachem flourish comprehensive.

Lighting is Aqua one T8 fluro grow unit with a 20w Tropical and 20w Sunlight tube on for 10 hours a day..

Set your player to hd
 
#6 ·
Hi



Was that due to the substrate or lighting and what type of plants CO2?

I only ask this because I seem to be able to grow plants in fine gravel with just root tabs and Seachem flourish comprehensive.

Lighting is Aqua one T8 fluro grow unit with a 20w Tropical and 20w Sunlight tube on for 10 hours a day..

Set your player to hd

Near as I can tell it was the substrate. I had the cheap gravel available at Wal-Mart and I think the diameter was too big for plants to grow easily in it.

The plants were swords and crypts mainly and both will grow without CO2 injections. I can't remember which light I had, a Coolio I think, but once I switched substrate the plants started growing under that light.
 
#9 ·
TBH, Unless you are going high tech high light CO2 EI ferts these pricey substrates are a waste of money.

This is my tank, no fancy substrate no co2, I use a half a milliliter of Seachem Flourish Comprehensive for the planted tank twice a week and Seachem root tabs



Tip

You want stuff that your plants can use in the substrate like these fancy substrates? Forget about vacuuming your substrate.

I do not own a gravel vacuum, I think they are pointless in a planted tank.
 
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