Soil based substrate and pea gravel

[typicalalex1]

Hi everyone.

Im thinking about replacing my substrate for my planted tank.

I like the idea of having a soil based substrate with pea gravel on top, but how do you keep them separated?

Like when i do water changes and gravel vaccuming?


What types of Complete substrates are there?

I have found the eco complete but black gravel is bad for discus.

Thanks in advance

Alex

[typicalalex1]

And i dont want sand. I tried it before and it was impossible to keep clean with my pleco because it poops a lot and always makes it look dirty.

[Orange Crush]

And i dont want sand. I tried it before and it was impossible to keep clean with my pleco because it poops a lot and always makes it look dirty.

Which is a good thing because you can see the poop that needs to be vacuumed out before it polutes the water too much and your discus get sick.

[typicalalex1]

Which is a good thing because you can see the poop that needs to be vacuumed out before it polutes the water too much and your discus get sick.

This is true but i vacume my gravel every other day when i do a 70% water change so the gravel is clean.
I just hate it when the sand looks dirty in between water changes which is why i prefer gravel.

So overtime, how do you keep the soil based gravel separate from the gravel on top?

Thanks

[DiscusOnly]

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/32043-el-natural-twist-long-56k.html

This is the method I used but not for discus tank. Personally, I would not do it for a discus tank. Now if it was a low stock huge tank (300+ gal), maybe but this stuff is messy.

Van

[Mxx]

What I'd heard advised was to buy some rigid plastic large gauge screen, lay that over the soil, and then lay your cap atop that. That way your plants will grow through it, but you won't be digging too far while trying to siphon or sticking your fingers in the substrate to plant things for instance. However, if you're aggressively gravel cleaning while siphoning, then I suppose you might want to add a half-inch of capping substrate atop the soil before you put down the screen. Once your plants have locked your roots into the screen you of course can't move them whenever you like, and you'd basically need to shear off their roots and possibly might have to replace the plant if you wanted to take it out of that spot or move it. Leaving the roots in place would simply enrich the soil by allowing those to decompose naturally of course.

[mwdw]

i'm getting ready to try soil in my tank. check out dustins fish tanks he just uses fine gravel to cap his soil. check out his videos.

mike

[Thelocal]

As 'mwdw' said, have a look at dustinsfishtanks on youtube. Ive had a dirted tank going for about a year now successfully with discus hasn't affected them at all (as far as i can tell). As you said during water changes and siphoning can be a problem at times but i just used a larger layer or gravel on top (2-3 inches) and was careful about going too deep with the siphon. I can truly say that adding dirt to a tank is great for the plants, they love it, grow like crazy and you should see the root system (spanning from one side of the tank to another).

[LKSDiscus]

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/32043-el-natural-twist-long-56k.html

This is the method I used but not for discus tank. Personally, I would not do it for a discus tank. Now if it was a low stock huge tank (300+ gal), maybe but this stuff is messy.

Van

Thanks Van for sharing us this post, it was very interesting how you did that.

[DiscusOnly]

Thanks Van for sharing us this post, it was very interesting how you did that.


No problem. A friend of mine sent me that link when he recommended this way of doing planted tank and the method reference worked for him.

Van