Aquarium talk 101 by Geekzeke.
Basics to starting a Planted Tank. So you have made the decision to grow live aquatic plants in your Aquarium. That is indeed a great decision for 2 reasons... 1) The beauty that live plants provide... 2) And the improved health of an aquarium that the live plants provide with proper care. Not only will you find that your aquarium takes on a more natural look, but you will also find that your fish behave in a more natural manner. At this point I am going to assume that you already have the basics on keeping tropical fish and are adapt to the basics of maintaining an aquarium. What I intend to do here is fill in the blanks to give you the best start to growing beautiful plants for that aquarium. The 3 Keys To Success... Quality Substrate, Good Lighting, Good Nutrition Today we will learn about substrate 4/23/14 Substrates The term Substrate refers to the medium that the plants will root in. Just like your house plants, what you "plant" them in can be very important because that is where many varieties of plants draw their nutrients from. When choosing your substrate you must consider the types of plants you are interested in growing and know their needs. There are a few varieties of plants that could care less what the roots are in because they get very little nutrition from the roots and only use their roots to anchor them whereas other aquatic plants rely heavily on the root systems and a quality substrate for nutrients. Later on I will list some varieties of plants that need a quality substrate and some that do not. The most common mistake made by beginners is to get the cheapest gravel they can find and a month later we ask ourselves why the plants are not growing well. A good quality substrate can be costly but will pay off in the end. All plants need a supply of Iron (Fe) to grow. Substrates such as Flourite and Eco-Complete provide a long lasting supply of Fe to the plants through the roots. While each of these products can be costly per bag to buy, it provides you the best start to growing nice plants. I personally have used both with great success. Plants "will" grow in your average aquarium gravel but the size of the gravel is very important. It needs to be a finer grain in size and it will also need to be fertilized to provide the nutrients to the plants. I would suggest a layer of peat and Laterite under regular aquarium gravel or sand to provide the Fe needed by the plants. When using this method you must take care not to disturb this layer over time. If it is disturbed and allowed to enter the water column you could create "nuisance algae" problems. Whatever you decide on for a substrate keep in mind that the depth should be about 3 inches. A common practice to save on the cost is to layer your substrates. By this I mean to set down 2 inches of an Iron enriched substrate (Flourite, Eco-complete, etc.) and then cap it off with either fine gravel or even sand. Sand mixed in also makes planting of smaller, delicate plants easier. Next time we will talk about lighting where the success or the failure of your planted tank can happen.
