# substrate



## Brett Stiefel (Feb 22, 2006)

Hi,
I tried converting my existing office aquarium to a planted aquarium without much luck. I am starting another from scratch. I want to do it correctly this time. Can anyone make any suggestions on what substrate to use, all specilized substrate or mixed with gravel or sand or all three? Also, I can find online where to buy substrate but not much on how much to use. I am setting up a standard 55, but the bags are listed by weight not volume so even in I went with all plant substrate I still don't know how much to get. The idea that I had was to put in about 2 inches of plant subtrate and an inch or two of pea gravel to hold the plants down. More plant substrate? Less? Is 4 inches enough or two much? I still want to have some water in there, but I suspect that one of the big problems with the office tank is that the substate is thin and just gravel. I fertalize but that does not seem to be enough. 

Thanks


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## Guest (Mar 12, 2006)

All you need is fish crap in semi fine gravel. Why didn't the first tank work well? See this tank? I have 90% of the plants in it either floating or attached to drift wood. Remember old timers were growing nice plants long before fluorescent light were even being used above tanks. Sure if you want a jungle of hard to grow high intensity light type plants to grow out of the top of your tank within 2 weeks of setting it up you gotta push some co2 and hammer the thing with light but I think it is best to start with some easy to grow plants and work your way up to that. Just because you can change the spark plug in your Briggs and Stratton lawn mower does not mean you are ready to tune up my Rolls Royce right?


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## KiltyONeal (Jan 25, 2006)

*Here's my set up for my 75g freshwater tank .....*

I have a little over 20 anubias in it now (I started with 5) and about 6 small swords. I also have 3 large bunches of anacharis that I trim every 2 weeks. I use the anacharis as my filter (I don't use a mechanical filter). It keeps the water clean and clear. The nitrate level in the tank stays at zero because of it. 

The anubias and swords like to feed from their roots. So in my tank, each one of those plants is in a plastic container that's a few inches deep. I use the Gladware containers that you find at the grocery store. I filled each container 1/3 full of top soil (not potting soil). Then I put the plant's roots into the soil and filled the container the rest of the way with gravel. This anchors the roots into the container nicely. I didn't want to see the containers at all, so I covered the tops with more gravel, being careful not to cover up the plant rhizomes. The gravel I use is fairly small, maybe 1/3 the size of regular pea gravel.

For lighting, I use four 40W bulbs (160W total). I use two full spectrum bulbs (~5000K) and two wide spectrum bulbs (~2250K). These are just mounted in two shop light fixtures.

For CO2, I use the DIY method. I use two 3 liter plastic bottles. Each is filled with 2 cups of sugar and 1 teaspoon of yeast. This lasts a little over a month before I need to refill. I use a CO2 reactor that I made out of PVC pipe. A pump just shoots water from the tank, into the reactor, mixes the water and CO2, then it shoots back into the tank.

Here's a picture from when I desperately needed to trim the anacharis!


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Tank size would be helpful to know as well as what you want to get out of the tank.


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## Brett Stiefel (Feb 22, 2006)

Simpte said:


> Tank size would be helpful to know as well as what you want to get out of the tank.


It is a 55 gallon . I don't know quite what you mean by get out of it. Just viewing I suppose. I plan to use acid loving South American fish. One sure plan is a school of tetras, cardianals or neons and some catfish. I might add some fish or plants from other regions, but lean toward a somewhat natural grouping. I don't like large fish, relative to the tank that is. I love to see large fish at a public aquarium. To me, in a home tank a group of smaller fish looks more natural and has more room, relative to their size to move about and display natural behavior.


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