Starting over on substrate

[M0oN]

Well in light of the advice Phil gave me and considering I have close to 100 dollars worth of plants arriving in the next 3 days I've decided to completely redo my substrate, I'm looking for feedback and personal experience with anything similar, or improvements that I could make.

The base layer will consist of sand, flourite, peat and soil all mixed together well, the second layer will be pure flourite and then to prevent any discomfort to my bottom dwellers I'll be topping it off with a layer of small sized gravel.

Does anyone see any problems with this setup? Has anyone ever done somthing similar to this?

Thanks,
Jason

[Wahter]

The only problem with layering is that if you ever move or remove a plant, there goes your layer! Uprooting will bring whatever's on the bottom up to the top. Also many times, smaller sized upper layers will eventually trickle down to the bottom (like when you get to the bottom of the container of tetra bits and the bottom is full of tiny crumbs).

I just stick with a 50/50 mix of flourite and fine gravel, but as you said, there is some controversy on whether or not flourite cuts the whiskers of corydoras catfish.

[M0oN]

Thanks a bunch Wahter, I was told that small gravel (unlike sand) will generally stay at the top level of the tank unless intentionally stirred, was this some bad info?

The only real reason for the first two layers is to try and keep the peat and soil from getting all over the place in the tank when I introduce new plants, heard that having sand to fill in the gaps and compact the very bottom layer is a good idea too.

[Don_Lee]

I think that Seachem Flourite and Seachem's black sand product(cannot remember the name) are very tried and true substrates. You could even do a mix, check out the thread I started not long ago on substrates.

Good Luck.......


Don ;D

[RAWesolowski]

Seachem Onyx is the black sand. I use it without problems although I much prefer the gravel. The sand imo is too fine to maintain a clean tank during water changes. Although I have not experienced any pH fluctuations with my hard water, I read one post on this board that indicated co2 would create spiking.

[Don_Lee]

Yes, Onyx, that is it! Tom Barr, a noted planted tank guru, swears by it. I have not had problems with it in the one tank I have it in, but that is not a discus tank so I don't have to clean as thoroughly as one would a discus tank.

Don

[Wahter]

Seachem makes both:

Onyx Sand (size 1-4 mm according here):
http://seachem.com/en_products/product_pages/350_onyx_sand.html

And

Onyx Gravel (size 5-10 mm according to here):
http://seachem.com/en_products/product_pages/370_onyx_gravel.html

[M0oN]

It's stated on the actual packaging of the Onyx that it contains a slight buffering capacity.

A good alternative from what I've been told is EcoComplete, it's fairly new, but doesn't require any rinsing and is packed with extracts that simulate black water's/rain water's.

I just stuck with flourite because it's what's been tried and true for the longest period of time as far as I know...

Finally got done redoing everything and man what a pain in the butt, now I've got a 1 inch base layer of flourite, black sand and peat mixed together, very compact. A 1/2 inch layer of pure flourite and a little under a 1 inch layer of small gravel above all of that.

Unfortunately I lost a davidsansi cory cat and two otocinclus in the process but I guess that's the price you pay, luckily oto's are fairly common around here...I'll have to replace the davidsansi with somthing more common, though.

I'll post a photograph as soon as the water clears up a bit.