Substrate???

[Ohad]

Ok! I just bought another tank, yay!! 

24-inch length 17, gallon rimless.

My first tank is a 10-gallon aquaon kit that came with aquaon shrimp substrate (lowering Ph lava rock). It took a long, long time for the plants to take off ( about a year), but now they are great. My pH level on this tank is in the mid-6, and my KH is none, pretty much.

 

For the new tank, I don't want to use CO2, but I want it to be heavily planted, and I am guessing eventually, it will have a group of tetras.

 

What substrate should I choose? 

MD fish tanks is my inspiration ( like many I am sure) 

He is now doing the "topsoil" plus root tabs caped with sand and gravel. It looks super pretty, but I am guessing not easy. 

 

Any recommendations will help. I want a natural riverbed look; I don't mind using root tabs. 

I am not crazy about the black Fluval look, but I will consider it as well 

In my mind the tank will have rocks, driftwood, Anubis petit, mix of stem plants, and some foreground carpeting

Thank you!! 

[Levi_Aquatics]

I would just go for an inert gravel from a lfs in a natural color. It is low maitenance and looks great with the look it sounds like you're going for.

[Ohad]

On 1/15/2023 at 6:10 PM, Levi_Aquatics said:

I would just go for an inert gravel from a lfs in a natural color. It is low maitenance and looks great with the look it sounds like you're going for.

Thank you, I am not sure what is lfs though? 

[Birdsnstuff]

Local Fish Store. We all have to learn the lingo! Under Community resources someone started an acronym lust that is very helpful.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Birdsnstuff
Spelling

[Ohad]

Thank you that sounds perfect for me.

Can I mix in send and gravel as I like that look?

And I assume that I need root tabs as well .

Now what is the benefit of lowering the PH? I live in NY and out of the tap my PH is a perfect 7 

[Rube_Goldfish]

With stem plants and carpeting plants, root tabs would help, for sure, especially with an inert substrate, but they may not be strictly necessary. Stem plants and carpeting plants (most of them? all of them? Now I'm not sure) draw nutrients through their roots but also draw a lot of nutrients through their leaves and stems directly from the water column. By all means, root tab away, but your principal form of fertilization should be a liquid water column fertilizer like Easy Green. Not to mention epiphytes like anubias will exclusively pull nutrients from the water column.

You can absolutely mix sand and gravel, yes.

You shouldn't need to do anything to lower your pH; 7.0 is good for most plants and most animals. As a sort of guideline, but not rule, aquatic plants tend to prefer slightly acidic and slightly soft water, but they should grow just fine in 7.0.

You mentioned that your KH is at or near zero. That's not necessarily a problem, but keep a close eye on your pH; a tank with no or low KH can easily drift to lower pH over time as organics build up. Crushed coral or Wonder Shell can counteract that if you find your tank acidifying.

Here is the "glossary" that @Birdsnstuff mentioned.

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Rube_Goldfish
Thanks for nothing, autocorrect

[Ohad]

Thank you! 

[JettsPapa]

On 1/15/2023 at 4:27 PM, Ohad said:

. . . What substrate should I choose? 

MD fish tanks is my inspiration ( like many I am sure) 

He is now doing the "topsoil" plus root tabs caped with sand and gravel. It looks super pretty, but I am guessing not easy. 

 

Any recommendations will help. I want a natural riverbed look; I don't mind using root tabs. 

I am not crazy about the black Fluval look, but I will consider it as well 

In my mind the tank will have rocks, driftwood, Anubis petit, mix of stem plants, and some foreground carpeting

Thank you!! 

I don't believe I've seen any information from MD fish tanks, but I've watched quite a few Father Fish videos, and he makes a lot of sense.  The last few tanks I've set up have had a layer of old cow manure at the bottom capped with 2" of either pool filter sand or Black Diamond sandblasting sand.  Plants are doing very well in them.

[Ohad]

Cow manure will be super hard for me to find as I live in Brooklyn haha. Rat manure is no problem 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 1/17/2023 at 6:26 PM, Ohad said:

Cow manure will be super hard for me to find as I live in Brooklyn haha. Rat manure is no problem 

If the cow manure is what I think it is, you can actually order it on Amazon.

@JettsPapa , is this the stuff you mean, the Black Kow "composted cow manure"?

[JettsPapa]

On 1/17/2023 at 5:26 PM, Ohad said:

Cow manure will be super hard for me to find as I live in Brooklyn haha. Rat manure is no problem 

You can often find it (at least here) in the garden department at big box home improvement stores.  It's with the potting soil.

I have cows, so I haven't had to buy it, but I've seen it at those stores.

The reply from @Rube_Goldfish popped up while I was typing the above.  Yes, that's the stuff I meant might be available in or near Brooklyn.