THE SUBSTRATE
The next step is to have the right substrate, your plants feed from the roots and this will affect their colour, growth and size. Some plants need specific substrates such as small foreground plants, HC and Glosso. The choices for Substrates are below.
- Plain Gravel – This is not a recommended substrate unless mixed with some sort of nutrient rich additive or soil, at least a 50/50 mix to be effective.
- Fluorite/Seachem – These are great nutrient rich substrates which are not cheap but will provide good minerals and vitamins for your plants.
- ADA Aquasoil (Amazonia ect.) – This is great not only for plants but will be perfect for small foreground plants to grow in. In addition it will drop the ph to just under 7, this can be good or bad so check before you use this substrate.
- Clay or laterite – This substrate can also be very effective if topped with a gravel but the problem is it can be messy and leave the aquarium very cloudy, whenever plants need to be moved it may be an issue, unless you know what your doing you should probably leave this one.
- DIY soil/fertilizer mix – This is a great choice and means you can make the substrate at a very reasonable cost, there are countless guides on how to do this, but for the record do not use any soils that are full of fertilizers or phosphates as these could be detrimental to your aquarium.
- Other commercial Substrates – eco complete/ upaqua or any other types of aquarium substrates should do the job great, just be sure to read if they will change your water qualities or ph so you don’t end up with any problems.
- Additives such as tabs or pellets – These funnily enough work very well when placed near the roots of a large plant, if you do not have many stem plants or do not want an organic substrate and would prefer gravel, these can work.
Remember it’s not the end of the world if you put in a substrate which doesn’t work the way you wanted, commercial substrates are expensive and so every day people come up with new and improved recipes for their substrates, don’t be scared to try this either.
