Aquarium Co-Op I have hard water and I mixed play sand, eco complete and fluorite. It’s just a simple 30 gallon. I dose liquid co2 and flourish. My plants are growing slow but they are growing. I have a 5 watt led light with a 5 watt fluorescent that I use for two hrs after the sun sets and the tank is behind a window. So the daytime it’s 5 watt led plus sunlight at night it’s 5 watt led plus 5 watt fluorescent for two hrs. I have a video on my channel just asking for some criticism. Thanks.
Hi @Aquarium Co-Op, should I be vacuuming my inert gravel in my planted 20g medium light tank? You spoke of the nutrients slowly seeping in to the gravel over time in this video. Thank you for your time!
Not that I am any kind of expert, but I think this is the best information on substrates I have ever heard/read. I'm going to check out the other plant 101 videos I skipped over.
-_- I'm just frying my brain (and eyes) at this point doing all this research. Every time I come to a conclusion, something changes my mind. Having such a tight budget doesn't help either. I just don't know anymore!
Oh my, to who that has watched this comment Dirted tank for easy plants and good quality ada type soil for lomg term aquascaping tank.... Correct if you have an opinion
I am learning so much from you. I loved the gardening analogy. You're right, as a gardening hobbyist, I would never plant anything in just one type of soil. But it never occured to me to do the same with aquarium plants.
I have been trying to find information on this topic for days now and this has been the most thorough, informative, and comprehensive video I have come across. Thank you for the time and energy you put into your videos.
Perfect;y put as always. I had failed miserably in the past on the substrate. Your statement on "everything is centered around water" is certainly an important message for many hobbyist's as well.
Great discussion Cory. Having some sort of substrate is 80% of growing plants, and you are so right about learning your local water first, and then amending to suit. Big Thumbs Up!
Mixing stuff is a good advice I think. I built my own soil using peat, worm kompost, crouched seeshells, clay and biochar, capped with pool filtersand. It has worked well fore me for two years now. I reasently started experimenting with adding micronutrients. Allso a good way to not run out of nutrients is to clean less and do fewer water charges.
My experience pretty much matches what you discuss here: my 20-long is planted with Eco-Complete, and far and away the best performer among my plants is the dwarf pygmy chain sword - it's growing like a weed. The stem plants, on the other hand, are struggling with slow growth. At least, they were until I started using Easy Green...
Eco complete is meant to get more mineral rich the longer it’s in the tank. You’re supposed to dose root tabs and liquid fert for the first 4-6 months and by that time it’s pretty good for the long term. It starts with almost no nutrients, but builds over time.
I'm cheap, regular old walmart gravel and let the fish poop feed plants. I love that you tie it all back to gardening, it's my other passion besides planted tanks! BTW Dustin was just jealous of your dedication to this hobby. He used to be ALMOST as good.
Thank you! I am setting up my first planted tank and I had questions about which substrate to use. My plants will be a mix, so I was glad this video confirmed my plan to use a mixture of substrates to benefit both types of plants at once. You're other videos have also been helpful. I feel very confident now that I am going to have a successful planted tank.
I liked your idea of using jars with layered gravel and root tabs. Layer of gravel in bottom of jar root tabs on top, followed by plant roots then more gravel and possibly 2 more root tabs. Like the ability to see progress of roots thru the glass.
Lol still learning about aquarium plants. I had to google what you said because "pogostemon stellatus octopus" just sounds made up when you say it fast!
hahaahah that's the first thing I did. It's just my personal preference though. Absolutely nothing against him. I usually watch vids at at least 1.25 anyway
Feeling lucky to live in the woods and have generally hard water. Been a year and so far fluval stratum clay substrate(spelling) is perfect for my planted tank and not super expensive. I occasionally use a little fertilizer from shrimp king once in a while (also priced reasonably) but really not often. Best wishes everyone.
Love your videos Cory. I have 6 tanks. 2 of which I have under gravel filtration. 1 of which I used eco and the other regular gravel. Same lighting and dosing. The regular gravel grows like crazy, out preforms the eco. 2 of my other tanks I harvested river sand\gravel. Both of those tanks going on 3 years, out grow the under gravel 2.
Makes sense in nature, there are seasons that affect the soil, substrate in ponds, streams and many bodies of water. Some also dry up or some rely on the flow of the water to redistribute nutrients. I wonder if Eco Complete will make a good addition to orchid media...
Thank you. Because I came across you on RU-vid one day, I am enjoying this hobby. Thank you for being a fountain of information. Your videos helped my get through the pandemic 👍🏼✌🏽
Is there a good resource out there that has the information about what different aquatic plants need with regard to nutrients and how they are adapted to survive (root versus water column feeders)? You drop some random knowledge about particular plants and their needs and adaptations so I'm just curious where you might recommend an aquarist to go if they want to find out this type of information about a particular plant. Thanks for making these videos!
I’ve used it all, but my go to now is a thin layer of pond soil with crushed root tabs, then a layer of pre used fine gravel (I never throw old substrates out,) and then a thick layer of sand. Never fails.
Awesome info, I’ve usually done a “renovation” at the 20/24 month mark, everybody comes out, fish go to the quarantine tank and plants get a Tupperware lol, things get re-arranged, I swap out 60% of my substrate, add a new lower layer and reset up all in one day, I wait till the next day and add everybody back in, I Don’t change the filter media, so my cycle is good, I trim some roots also to make them grow abit...never had any issues, I’m almost due for my 4 th Reno this fall :) Than I have mature plants, I sometimes add new ones lol, a new look, and everyone is super happy after a week or so again :) Plus after 2 years you want a new look usually! I mix like 3 different plant substrates, and gravel, it’s worked for a long time now 😎👍🏻
This sounds like the best strategy and approach for established planted tanks that just need a revamp fertilization wise. I think i will be using this method, thanks for sharing
I'm starting my first planted tank soon.. but I just want to learn as much as possible before even filling the tank up.. I need to buy substrate first, so thank you so much!
I set up a planted 55 a month ago and used fert tabs on the bottom then ProMix organic potting soil mix covered with a thin layer of well rinsed coarse general purpose construction sand, the sand has a more natural color and a variety of particle sizes. The soil has a lot of compost so it already has a large diversity of beneficial bacteria and fungi, it also has a lot of lignin so when you fill the tank you get yellow water but a couple of partial water changes takes care of that while the tank cycles. It doesn't seem to change the hardness but that's OK, our water is fairly hard, lots of Calcium and Magnesium My plants and snails are thriving.
Thanks so much for doing this video. I love sand substrates and have had decent luck with them with low maintenance plants. I'm setting up a new little tank and I've been wondering if I shouldn't switch to soil - but I was struggling with the idea that you outlined here...somewhere down the line, the soil will become depleted and I would be stuck doing a revamp or fertilizing - just about the same as if I had started with non-soil in the first place. I think I'd rather work with the substrate that I really want and make adjustments for its limitations to maintain it for its lifetime, than have a great substrate for a certain window of time that will require similar maintenance down the road. I'm not knocking soil at all, I do think it produces beautiful results, but not sure it's what I want and I'm not as concerned now about just sticking with sand.
I am so happy i watched this whole vid and didn't skip around. At first I was looking for a product recommendation but by the end of your video I now feel confident finding the correct substrate and what suits me and my water! BTW I live in Texas :) and am about to test my water and see just how hard it is.
Best infoI have found and presented in an easy to understand form. I have not been having good luck with Eco complete, but my water is hard and my ph high right out of the tap. Now I see why I may have chosen the wrong substrate for my situation as I don't want to use RO. Thank you.
Great tank! Here's my question with substrates: won't the plants eventually use up the nutrients in the special plant substrate, to where root tabs will be necessary? If so, then is there much of a benefit to planted substrate vs. sand+root tabs?
This video was super super helpful. You answered all my questions and other videos just seemed to complicate it or leave me with even more questions. I’m so glad I found this!
Same here. Red soil from Nagpur. Local nursery guy gave me 3 pots, about 12 litres. 2 kilograms of Fluval soil and 3 litres of Platinum substrate to top it up. My 2x1.6x2 feet aquarium shall be set up tomorrow, after having upgraded from my present 1.5x1x1 planted one.
Cory, that was great. Since most of the people that want to convert from plastic plant to real plants will have gravel, how about to do a segment specifically on gravel tank growing techniques.
He did mention in another vid about wanting to do clown puke gravel with all the red blue yellow green pink and whatever other colors there is to prove plants can be grown successfully in there that a high end substrate isn't needed to do a planted tank. May be awhile till this happens though.
I really want to see this video, I just got rid of my turtle and I'm ready to start a planted aquarium. My turtle destroyed my last one and I stupidly threw out all the substrate and replaced with gravel. Big mistake that was back when I could afford to spend £100-150 on substrate. A lot of people seem to be biased towards plant substrate but I'm sure there must be a way to do it in gravel
love this video spot on. i really enjoyed how you discuss water hardness. people always forget that part. i had high light, co2, aquasoil, the works. then i decided i wanted low tech. what an experience. i now know what plants can acfiallu grow in hard water.
good video... I don't really mess with seachem substrates too much. for me ADA is heads and tails above the rest. I've used it all and currently have ADA, fluorite, eco complete, one dirted and my wife uses stratum. I have soft water too and have found its pointless to have a substrate do my buffering. I have municipal water and use a 50-50 ro mix using equilibrium to remineralize. ADA imho has it all covered after that. Root tabs are nice in theory but never did much for me. I uses them when my subs. depleted till I have time to start fresh.
My water is super acidic it's like 60 to 80 ppm kh and my plants are having a hard time. What would you reccomend for buffering it. I use eco complete mixed with gravel. I have low lights and med light plants my swords are melting
I Would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on father fishes deep substrate and forever aquarium principles :using minimum 2 inches of soil capped with usually sand like the walstad method Love your videos thank you
I live in South Texas. My tap water tests are crazy. Like pH is probably above 7.6 but that's the highest my current test goes, KH is around 8°, & GH is about 15°. So my plants do good with lower lights (LED lights attached to lid on 5 gallon kit & similar), and a basic aqueon liquid fertilizer. I currently only have an Anubis Nana & a money wort. My Anubis is kinda planted in the gravel but just the "roots" are under the surface not deep & it's next to the filter output. I keep reading that it won't grow planted & planting it is bad. However I've had it almost 6 months now & it's twice as big as it was when I got it, growing 1-2 new leaves every couple of weeks. The money wort I just got & it's currently floating.
I was just on your website, lost in the sauce, when I decided I needed to do more research. After watching this, not only do I feel more comfortable making a decision, I also feel .ore comfortable ordering from you knowing that there is some knowledge behind the business.
I have water lettuce and one water hyacinth. I just added aquarium co-op easy green and flora max. I heard flora max is basically the same as eco complete. I was looking for a video from you about soil bc some people say to use just Home Depot soil.
Great and informative video. If possible also make a video on different plants and their requirements this would be a great guide for all in order to make selection of plants so that requirements are common for all of them.
No biggie, but just in case it matters to you at all, cation is pronounced "cat-i-on" like "cat" (meow) and "ion". Ions can be positively or negatively charged, and are called cations or anions, respectively. The cation exchange capacity of the clay part of a potting mix is a big hullabaloo in the bonsai community. Most of the old masters roll their eyes at substrate discussions (in the bonsai community, not the fish cult) and say things like "I use Akadama because I can get it at the hardware store for $6 a bag. If I lived in Indonesia, I'd use lava rock. Why aren't you studying wiring technique this hard?" (Actual quote from a Japanese master.) Anyway - thanks for all these vids. G/f just carved out the backdrop for our 75gal from layered extruded polystyrene and we're putting the concrete on tomorrow. So...
I just use an inert mixture of black crystal gravel (20%) rinsed river sand (60%) and white crystal gravel(20%) , seems to work great alongside organic potting soil root tabs
I have a dirted tank. It's made with compost I made and sifted. I also mixed it with diatomaceous earth or rock dust, cant remember. Its pretty mineral rich. But I need root tabs after like 2 years
Did this in a 5 gal. Another problem with sand is if you have aggressive root plants, like crypts, you can actually rip out a chunk of your substrate trying to pluck out runners. Yes, I was a little aggressive on my pruning, but I wasn't expecting to lift out my sand bed.
One thing you can do, and which I plan to try someday, is a gravel substrate but with potted plants buried in the gravel. This would hopefully keep the plants' soil isolated and keep the tank bottom relatively clean. It also makes repositioning the plants fairly simple :P
Wasn't sure when i started watching it...Turned out pretty good. I've never seen the whole planted thing from this angle. It's like all those Pro knew about it but wasn't sharing it with us...Just my views. I'm glad i subscribed to this channel a while back. Great video guys... Thanks. ; )
Do you have any tips for planting in that loose, clay style substrate? I tried fluval stratum, and it looked amazing and my fish & plants loved it - but i found it tricky to plant in!
I watch this video every few months. This time was ALSO revealing I have got Red soil from Nagpur. Local nursery guy gave me about 12 litres from three pots where the plants had died during transport. 2 kilograms of Fluval and 3 litres of Platinum substrate to top it up. My 2x1.6x2 feet aquarium shall be set up tomorrow, after having upgraded from my present 1.5x1x1 planted one. #PlantedAquariumRocks!
Which liquid fertilizer is best? Pretty new to this. I've got a 10 gallon tank with stem plants, Java Fern, basically plants that only feed from water column. I've also got a male Betta in there to help start the cycling process. Using Fluval Plant and Shrimp Stratum and will eventually add some smooth river rocks for a top layer. I'd like to add some Tetras and Kuhli Loaches in the future as well. Edit: Only 6 days into the cycle with 2 water changes
I have extremely hard water, but I keep very hardy black skirt tetras, tiger barbs and albino cory catfish. If I wanted to change to a planted tank. How would a substrate that softens the water affect the fish (it would be a big change)? I have had tropical fish for years, but I never did a planted tank. I want to start with very basic/beginner plants. Thanks for the info. I subscribed 😁
Came to figure out if I needed some sort of nutrients substrate & leaving realising I don’t need it as I only have (&plan to get) plants that draw from the water. Thanks!
Great stuff! I'm putting together a 120 dirted+plant+discus tank. This is great information I had a 40 gallon years ago and I made every mistake that could possibly be made. This time you guys are arming me with much needed information. Keep the videos coming.
Extremely helpful whenever I've asked questions I consistently get "this is what I use" or "this should be fine". How do I find out if a plant feeds from the water column or the substrate? You mentioned many of them but some I didn't hear.
+Vicky B there is no strict rule, so either learn from experience or research the plant name plus root feeder or water column feeder and read the discussions people have had.
I have been in this hobby for over 40 years. I have to disagree with you on using play sand. I used it for years, and the rooted plants had such a root base that I had a hard time pulling the plants out when I moved. Lately I have mixed aquarium gravel with sand, which works great. Pool sand works, but it is to hard to get the plants planted. Oh yes, I use root tabs for fertilizer.
Years ago I used regular pea gravel I found at an old playground and my plants went nuts .I had a single 20 watt full spectrum florescent light for a 35 gallon tank I had since I was a kid thats 36h x12w x17d and had Amazon swords , Java moss and ,Vallisneria and Ludwigia repens . My guess is that the iron content was decent enough to give those plants a good boost. The biggest surprise was the Ludwigia which I collected locally along with the Vallisneria . Normally Ludwigia likes to have full sunlight and generally lives along the shoreline where there's lots of nutrients and you'll see them growing out of muddy clay soils . They prefer to live on land along the edge of a lake or pond in marsh like conditions . I was fully expecting to have a die off or at least lose a lot of leaves because of the lighting difference but for whatever reason it didn't happen .I lost some lower leaves but not that much. In no time at all I had my Neon tetras and Cory catfish breeding and doing fantastic. Prior to that I never had luck trying to breed Neons despite my best efforts .Then one day I noticed them courting and then eggs on the glass and leaves of the Amazon swords. That just made my day seeing that. I know it's not normally recommended to use native gravels because of the risk in introducing pathogens or unwanted pollution that might be lurking in the gravel but I've had good luck with finding healthy gravel and sands . I usually put a layer of cleaned sand leaving just a little bit of organic matter and then thoroughly clean the gravel that I'll layer over the substrate . I also put a 1 inch thick styrofoam board underneath the tank to make sure the substrate is kept at the same temp as the water above. Furthermore I also put various aquatic insects that like to burrow and some eat algae . I've also put in fresh water clams to see if I could use them to further filter the water and also slightly aerate the substrate much the same as earthworms do .One thing that's important when growing rooted plants is to make sure that the roots aren't compacted or choked out . This is why many don't encourage the use of sands because it tends to compact if there's enough clay or if the sand is super fine . One big factor to keep in mind is that the larger the tank ,the more self regulating it can be . There must be the proper ratio of water versus biology . Too many people overcrowd their tanks and then wonder why they had a smelly disaster . In a properly sized aquarium that uses plants and fish in harmony to compliment each other and also the use of smaller creatures such as shrimp or other crustaceans to do the organic mop job ,a tank can be pretty healthy as long as proper water changes are done and there's a good gas exchange going on . The idea is to mimic nature and in nature there's a variety of contributors that help regulate water chemistry and keep the overall bioload in check . I did an experiment one time using plants,a few local fish such as Stickleback fish,fresh water clams, tubifex worms and lots of small crustaceans and only used a small pump to circulate the water column and no filtration. The result was crystal clear water and a healthy tank that stayed that way for quite some time till I decided to move to another place . I love this hobby and have been keeping fish and all sorts of assorted critters such as amphibians since I was a kid . This hobby gave me an education and kept me out of trouble . My first job was working at a local fish hatchery that also dud impirt and export of both salt and freshwater tropical fish and other assorted critters like reptiles,amphibians and lits of aquatic plants . I had to know all the latin names for each of the fish which I was tested on my very first day . I wasn't expecting that but did pretty good but still had much to learn .It was stressful and fast paced but I loved it because I was in my element . My mentor was a man who had started the first tropical fish hatchery in my home state of Washington who had started his business back in the 40s . I was 16 and very ambitious but soon realized that there wasn't much money in the study of fishes . I worked with Ichthyologist and learned a great deal but also saw they were struggling to pay off their student debt . Despite their expertise they weren't making much more than I was . Its one of those jobs that you do it because of your passion for the subject and not for the money unless you own a business such as a hatchery or possibly a pet store . I later moved onto working for a large pet store chain that's no longer in business and saw that even they were struggling to stay afloat . It's good to see a resurgence in this hobby and that there's much more information available than back when I first got started in the hobby . I give credit to Takashi Amano for giving this hobby a much needed boost and for sparking the curiosity of a new generation . I was sad when I heard of his passing at such a young age . Thank you Takashi for all that you did for this hobby. RIP 🐠 🌿 😢
I made a mistake... OK several, but I just converted my 10G to a planted tank and used potting soil. I sifted it to get the big chunks out so it's all fine soil. 3" of potting soil, gravel on top, then water. Now it's an unintentional blackwater tank no matter how often I do water changes! The tank is still cycling, with three baby Gambusia as canaries while I watch and see how things are going. So, unless you really like your fish swimming in dark tea I don't recommend using potting soil! Who knows, maybe it will settle down? The plants are doing great! I got a 10 species pack and some are doing OK, the anacharis looked dead to start but is showing new life, and the hornwort already needs taming after only a couple weeks.
