I started with a 10 gallon tank and initially got gravel and all fake decor. I quickly realized I wanted plants though, and I wanted to use a good substrate (fluval or dirted) to give myself better odds of my plants thriving. Since my tank was already done though pulling out all the gravel would be a big task, so I actually planted my plants in terracotta pots (they cost less than a $1 at Home Depot). I find it hard to use the big tweezers for planting, this lets me do all the planting outside the tank and easily bury the roots. I can also easily turn the pots in the tank and move it around for trimming. And if I’m ever unsuccessful with a plant I can pull all the dead debris out. Also this way if I upgrade my tank I can easily move all my plants over. This might be obvious, but I didn’t know until I tried, if you do use dirt you have to add a layer of gravel (or something heavy) on top or the dirt will just float out. The terracotta pots don’t look natural, but I was focused more on getting some plants growing and seeing what would do well in my tank and what wouldn’t before spending the money and time on setting up driftwood. I love these though for how easy it makes adding plants to my tank, and how easy it makes gravel vacuuming with plants (I can just move them).
Suggestions on Change
in General Discussion
Posted
I started with a 10 gallon tank and initially got gravel and all fake decor. I quickly realized I wanted plants though, and I wanted to use a good substrate (fluval or dirted) to give myself better odds of my plants thriving. Since my tank was already done though pulling out all the gravel would be a big task, so I actually planted my plants in terracotta pots (they cost less than a $1 at Home Depot). I find it hard to use the big tweezers for planting, this lets me do all the planting outside the tank and easily bury the roots. I can also easily turn the pots in the tank and move it around for trimming. And if I’m ever unsuccessful with a plant I can pull all the dead debris out. Also this way if I upgrade my tank I can easily move all my plants over. This might be obvious, but I didn’t know until I tried, if you do use dirt you have to add a layer of gravel (or something heavy) on top or the dirt will just float out. The terracotta pots don’t look natural, but I was focused more on getting some plants growing and seeing what would do well in my tank and what wouldn’t before spending the money and time on setting up driftwood. I love these though for how easy it makes adding plants to my tank, and how easy it makes gravel vacuuming with plants (I can just move them).