Substrate question

[AngryBird]

After a lot of thinking I am decided to add substrate to my planted tank. I may not have a whole lot of plants in the substrate but I would like to hear about caribsea peace river if anyone ever used it. This is my tank with plants all growing off the driftwood. Its low light planted tank with no co2. 225 gallon tank with just 4 adult discus as of now. I do have some tetras that will move in with the discus once I am done adding the substrate.

Here is the picture of 225 gallon tank.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/6776/img5662w.jpg

[lipadj46]

I'm not sure of the caribsea stuff but if you have low light and no CO2 your best bet is to use a substrate that has the ferts in it already like mineralized top soil under a sand or flourite cap or ADA aquasoil or the like.

[coralreefer68]

I used that in my 75 gal when I first started, however, I ended up NOT liking the color of it, I switched to the pool filter sand and just adding fert tabs to my plants and I am much happier. The whiteness of the sand helps bring out the color of my discus where the caribsea seemed to make the tank dull colored overall.

Good Luck....


John

[birdyman23]

I use caribsea sand that is white and it looks really good and easy to clean.

[discuspaul]

I used that in my 75 gal when I first started, however, I ended up NOT liking the color of it, I switched to the pool filter sand and just adding fert tabs to my plants and I am much happier. The whiteness of the sand helps bring out the color of my discus where the caribsea seemed to make the tank dull colored overall.

Good Luck....

Agree 100%. Go for it.


John


I use caribsea sand that is white and it looks really good and easy to clean.


Agree 100% - Go for it ! You won't be sorry you did.

[H2Ochanger]

We ended up using a thin layer of pool filter sand in the tank, and used pots for the plants. We have the pots filled with Eco-complete. Of course there's some eco-complete that is going to be spilled or knocked out of the pots, but it lets us have a nice, light-colored substrate, with a good plants substrate where it's needed. The pots, as a side benefit, provide some good spawning surfaces. I really didn't think I was going to like the looks of the potted plants, but it's working fine.

[AKRON AWOL]

any recent pics of your setup??

[AngryBird]

I ended up purchasing the substrate. 1 to 2 mm size gravel which is very close to sand and it is a mix of white and light brown. Caught up with many things so could not complete the scaping. I will upload a picture once I am done. I bought 4 X 50 lb bag and I am not sure if that is sufficient. The tank area is 72X24.