Best substrate for planted tanks?

[Patrick M. Bodega Aquatics]

Hello! What is the best substrate for planted aquariums? The aquarium would have Java Moss, dwarf hairgass, banana plant, red dwarf lily, vallisneria, dwarf baby tear, and hydrocotyle tripartita. Thanks!

 

[Daniel]

I am not sure there is a best, only a lot of 'it depends'. I am running 3 similar aquariums where the only difference is the substrate. So far the results are inconclusive.

The Nermal tank has regular aquarium gravel and root tabs for fertilizer and has done well at growing plants but also has a bit of cloudiness. The baby's tears in this tank are outstanding.

The Dirt aquarium which is a Walstad style aquarium has also been very good at growing plants, but has a bit of staghorn algae (which is currently declining without any treatment). The crypts and Vallisneria in this tank have taken off.

The Eco-Complete aquarium has okay plant growth and the best water clarity so far.

So, I guess the answer is, it depends.

[FlyingFishKeeper]

Yeah, I would have to agree with @Daniel, also it would probably depend on weather or not you're dosing liquid ferts, your hardness, etc 

[Bill]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

The Eco-Complete aquarium has okay plant growth and the best water clarity so far.

I have that in my 53 gallon display tank setup in August (no C02, crypts, java fern, val, etc). Finally starting to look really good after 4 months, plants finally overtook algae and are growing nicely. Water is very clear. And I barely fertilize. 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Bill

[Alison]

So far I have only two planted tanks, one of them freshly set up. I used eco complete in both because I honestly have had fantastic results. It took a bit for things to get going, but now that they have the plants are just growing like mad. I figured that it worked so well the first time around why mess with success?

[Streetwise]

I am biased towards organic soil with a cap layer, but my choice is not about the best. It is about the style of ecosystem that I like to run.

[JettsPapa]

I have Black Diamond blasting sand in one tank and pool filter sand in the rest.  I use Easy Green twice per week, and the plants are thriving in all of them.

[FishyJames]

I use eco complete with good results.  Getting short rooting plants can be difficult because eco complete is fairly coarse.  Maybe mixing eco complete with a finer substate could of helped. 

[Bill]

11 hours ago, FishyJames said:

I use eco complete with good results.  Getting short rooting plants can be difficult because eco complete is fairly coarse.  Maybe mixing eco complete with a finer substate could of helped. 

Yeah I hate it when I think I got an amazon sword planted just right and not too deep, and it floats to the surface about 5 times. Then I jamb it in, and I know its too deep, lol.