# Plant Substrate



## Fishy:) (Apr 10, 2010)

So I have a five gallon aquarium. I want about two inches of nutrients for the plants and then one inch of black sand on top. So I figured the flourite 20 lb bag was too much so Im looking for a cheap nutrietional substrate from home depot. Heres a site you can look at. Let me know what you think is the best:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgl/Ntk-All/Ntt-soil/h_d2/Navigation?langId=-1&storeId=10051&Ntx=mode+matchpartialmax&style=B&catalogId=10053


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

nothing.... none of that is what you want. Simply go dig up some nice topsoil(black dirt) from your yard or some place that is pesticide free and is not normally fertilized(woods if you have them). Use this as the base layer in your tank, then put the black sand overtop. 

Store bought fertilizers are normally nutrient enriched, unless they state otherwise. They may work wonders with land plants, aquatics are another issue. A very nutrient rich soil will leech its nutrients into the water, high nutrients like this will cause algae issues. Most importantly fresh organic matter is often added to these store soils, things like manure, urea, and other nitrogen sources. Again great for land plants, not so great in a aquatic environment. These will release ammonia, in short most enriched soils are pretty high in ammonia. It is a good source of nitrogen for both land and aquatic plants. However it also encourages algae and most importantly excess ammonia harms our fish. 

I simply see no reason to use store bought soil, use the stuff you have in your yard. Nutrient run off from fertilizers used by farms is always a environmental concern for lakes and streams. It causes what is called eutrophication. Basically the same thing can happen in a closed system such as your tank if you add way too many nutrients. Ammonia, nitrate, and phosphate are the biggies. They are all provide macro nutrients, you need these for plants to grow. However too much of a good thing can cause no end of problems.


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