What type of gravel or sand?

Hi Guys,

looking to start a 3 footer planted/community tank
what type of gravel is used to make the plants grow nicely?
and does a person physically plant the plants or grass in the gravel?
sorry guys,still new to whole aquarium world :tongue:

and any suggestions on what type of plants and grass?

thanks guys

 

You could try PFS,it does get dirty rather quickly though.

Personally i use play sand (which ironically also get dirty pretty quickly),i was going to stock Geophagus but i was swayed when i saw some GreenTerrors at the LPS.


As for plants,it's not my forte and there are allot of things to consider (low tech or high tech,lighting,ferts,Co2 etc)

 

@leeg If you go for low tech plants, you don't have to worry too much about what gravel you use. get yourself a decent all in one fert and some decent lights and you are all set. you can do really nice scapes wil low tech plants

 

I recently just changed to PFS (pool filter sand) in my 1000lt. Love the way it looks. I dont have any plants due to the fish I have though. One word of advice is that if you going to go with PFS is to wash it, then wash it again and when you think its clean was it a few more times!

 

A basic gravel (essentially just crushed rocks) has worked very well in my main tank. This is a high-tech setup. This one is much prettier than the pool filter sand tank I have.

That being said, the pool filter sand tank is growing perfectly well.

Make sure the size of each piece is not too small or it can compact and go anaerobic quite easily. I'd estimate around 5mm pieces to be a good size.

I stock a wide variety of plants in the tanks and nothing is having a problem in either substrate.

As was mentioned, a good all round fertiliser is important. Make sure you do your research on plants because the requirements can vary dramatically.

Some, like Crypts (generally), Java fern and Java moss will do well in a low light setup. Others won't.

Then you need to consider how much lighting you want and whether or not you want to do CO2.

My advice is that you start low-tech if this is your first tank. A high-tech tank has way more that needs to be considered and balanced and the cost can increase a fair amount depending on how high-tech you want to go.

 

In answer to your planting question, for the most part yes the person does stick it in the gravel but this depends on the plant.

Plants such as Java ferns and Anubias have rhizomes which will rot and die if you plant them in the gravel. These like to be attached to rocks and wood.

Some plants can be grown in the gravel or floating such as Hygrophilia Polysperma.

Like I said, research because it can be very easy to get it wrong. There are a lot of sites with good information on the Web.

The planted tank is quite useful.

Others will recommend planted aquarium south africa.

My advice, read all of them