Best substrate for growing plants

[Scaperoot]

    I'm going to be rescaping one of my 20 long tanks, and I'm wondering what others have had the most success with as far as growing plants. I use sand in all my tanks, but I can't get stem plants or crypts to thrive in one particular tank. I use root tabs and easy green. I'd like a dark substrate. Someone recommended Amazonia but I've read mixed reviews on it. I'm also considering soil capped with sand. I've tried eco complete before and that was a nightmare. I tried having lava rock in mesh bags capped with sand and that created its own problems. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

[Tony s]

I just use plain round gravel. Unless I have a bottom feeder. Even corys do fine in small round gravel. And the crypts do great. I have sprouts all over my 75. But, like you I haven’t had success with stems yet 

[Beach Cruiser]

Define best?

The pro guys use a dedicated aqua soil, but it has a finite life of maximum effect & some potential beginning setbacks. It's also pricey.

Conversely, you can grow a lot of plants in plain sand/gravel with the right fertilizers. Super cheap, too.

A good middle ground is a medium grain ( holds roots well) type of substrate that has a high CAC rating (the ability to hold & release nutrients from the water).  

You're going to read mixed reviews on everything.

I'd browse the journals forum until you find an example that has similar lights & plants to what you want to achieve. 

In my experience, light & ferts have a bigger effect than substrate. Hydroponic set ups grow just about anything without much in the way of "soil".

 

[Pepere]

I have liked Safe T Sorb in mesh bags capped with 2 inches of Black Diamond Blasting sand (BBBS) very low cost, nice to plant stems into…

the Safe T Sorb has excellent CEC. Placing it in mesh bags prevents it from rising to the surface.

The BDBS is coarse enough it allows easy root growth. It also looks very good to me..

Edited July 29 by Pepere

[ange]

I've used Amazonia, capped soil, and gravel successfully in long-term setups and never had success with sand long-term unless it was a small percentage of the substrate. By far my favorite is Amazonia. Yes the Amazonia eventually depletes but in the show tanks that I have (professional installation) it's phenomenal for reducing the amount of work that I need to do during an already busy time. In setups where I have a longer timeline I like a mix of gravel sizes. The finer pieces settle into the bottom and the bigger pieces allow for roots to be able to take hold and have more freedom of movement. The one downside is needing to fertilize very frequently when you don't have a supply of mulm to feed the plants. Sometimes I'll mix Amazonia with gravel for aesthetic purposes.

Soil is generally my least favorite substrate. The tannins are a pain in the butt to manage in the installations and Purigen requires more frequent regeneration as a result. It can look amazing and I've done capped soil in personal tanks but I would not do it standalone unless I was trying to create a very specific concept.

For the average hobbyist I usually advise gravel because I personally like the look better and you get to avoid a lot of the complications associated with Amazonia. Gravel also doesn't tend to have an ugly phase.

[Wadikus]

I use seachem flourite blacksand, it's inert so it needs root tabs. I've heard people saying that rooting plants have a hard time taking hold in it but that has not been my experience at all my plants are nuts in the stuff, I even have microsword growing well.

I did the grid pattern with root tabs from NiloCG since in Canada it was difficult before Aprils aquarium started carrying coop stuff.

Personally I like the way the stuff looks and as long as I put some tabs in every 3-4 months to keep it seeded it's been great and my cory cats love it.

I'll add just make sure its the "sand" variant of the product not the regular flourite. They also make a Onyx Sand which has some buffering capacity if that's what you're looking for.

I kind of wish I knew about the Onyx sand before starting my shelly tank as aragonite has been a nightmare of white powder everywhere.. everything is covered.

Edited July 29 by Wadikus

[mynameisnobody]

@Scaperoot just curious, why did you find eco complete to be a nightmare?

[Scaperoot]

On 7/29/2024 at 3:58 PM, mynameisnobody said:

@Scaperoot just curious, why did you find eco complete to be a nightmare?

I hated planting into it. The stems would always get damaged when I tried. I made the mistake of adding too many mesh bags beneath the gravel, so I didn't have much room for plants. I wanted to add height to the back of the tank, but I used too many for a 20 long. 

[MattyM]

I've used 2 kinds of small-sized gravel, seachem flourite black sand, and eco-complete. Much like @Scaperoot I hate eco complete for the same reasons, and am glad I only have it in a 6 gal. The gravel was ok, but really needs vacuuming. I liked the black sand so much that's what I used when I upscaled most of my smaller tanks into a 100g. Absolutely no issues with planting or things growing. I keep a pretty deep bed and can see roots have reached the very bottom of the tank. I also have a 10 cory cats and they love it.

It looks and performs amazing - for a planted take you'll need root tabs, and a nice deep bed - 3 or 4 inches (the seachem site has a calculator for how many bags you'll need for what depth). I found some black scatter stones that are a nice accent in some spots of the tank. 

If you go with that sand (yes it can be pricey), and have a local shop, they might be able to order your sand right from seachem, that's what I did and I got pristine bags vs the leaking bags you get from Amazon. 

Edit: the only downside to this sand is you really have to rinse it - like get a 5 gal bucket and hose, rinse it well - you'll loose a little sand but that's ok. It's just a 1 time thing you need to do. Then fill the tank very slowly, letting the water hit a plate or plastic bag, tupperware, etc. 

Edited July 30 by MattyM

[Dacotua]

Believe it or not, I use pool filter sand with root tabs to start off. I haven't put in root tabs in over a year. I keep having to trim plants. (Sand is the cheapest, you can get a bag of it at home depot for about 6 dollars).

[Scaperoot]

On 7/30/2024 at 2:03 PM, MattyM said:

I've used 2 kinds of small-sized gravel, seachem flourite black sand, and eco-complete. Much like @Scaperoot I hate eco complete for the same reasons, and am glad I only have it in a 6 gal. The gravel was ok, but really needs vacuuming. I liked the black sand so much that's what I used when I upscaled most of my smaller tanks into a 100g. Absolutely no issues with planting or things growing. I keep a pretty deep bed and can see roots have reached the very bottom of the tank. I also have a 10 cory cats and they love it.

It looks and performs amazing - for a planted take you'll need root tabs, and a nice deep bed - 3 or 4 inches (the seachem site has a calculator for how many bags you'll need for what depth). I found some black scatter stones that are a nice accent in some spots of the tank. 

If you go with that sand (yes it can be pricey), and have a local shop, they might be able to order your sand right from seachem, that's what I did and I got pristine bags vs the leaking bags you get from Amazon. 

Edit: the only downside to this sand is you really have to rinse it - like get a 5 gal bucket and hose, rinse it well - you'll loose a little sand but that's ok. It's just a 1 time thing you need to do. Then fill the tank very slowly, letting the water hit a plate or plastic bag, tupperware, etc. 

I used black diamond sand in my 40 breeder and a 20 long, and I love it. I recently topped both tanks with black galaxy sand for the shimmer. My other tanks have pool filter sand. The tank I'm struggling most with has the pool filter sand. I've tried different plants (stems, crypts) and the only ones that do well are tiger lotus and anubias. I have another tank with pool filter sand where everything grows perfectly. The only difference is that it is more heavily stocked. 

On 7/30/2024 at 7:13 PM, Dacotua said:

Believe it or not, I use pool filter sand with root tabs to start off. I haven't put in root tabs in over a year. I keep having to trim plants. (Sand is the cheapest, you can get a bag of it at home depot for about 6 dollars).

That looks amazing. How about your lighting (type of light, hours per day)? 

[Dacotua]

I use a Fluval Plant 3.0 (I have the light on 8 hours a day)