Recommendation for substrate

[Chee Jin]

I am a newbie in fish rearing and thinking of starting my first low tech 2ft planted tank. Ideally, I will prefer 1 type of substrate for easy maintenance. Any recommendation on substrate?

I do not have external filter, using those $20+ hang on filter. Is this good enough? For planted tank, how often do I need to suck out fish poo?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[illumnae]

i would highly recommend the use of Gex brand soil substrate =) it's chock full of nutrients for your plants and doesn't cloud the water for long no matter how you stir it up. it's probably the best substrate available in the market now, and it's hassle free too!

your filter should be alright, do you know what the flow rate is (should be indicated on the packaging as XX litres/hour)? ideally, you will want a filter that is rated at 3-4 times the volume of water in your tank (so for a 2x1x1 ft tank, the volume is 54 litres so 200 litres/hour is sufficient, more is ok as long as you don't have a whirlpool in your tank)

fish poo wise, in a planted tank i don't think you need to as the fish poo will decompose and be absorbed by the plants as nutrients. i just do some basic siphoning of debris once a week when i change the water

hope this helps =)

[Chee Jin]

Packaging says 260/330 for flow rate.
Is there many type of Gex soil or only 1 type? If many types, which one do you recommend?

[illumnae]

usually for planted tank light green or dark green packaging is used. they're both for planted, but dark green has a smaller grain size. i'm personally using light green with excellent results. the price for it just dropped too! i just went to check an hour ago

[marle]

i heard the gex brand is pretty good, another brand you can try is magic soil. I know its sold at colourful aquarium located at balestier.

[moss_guy]

Magic soil is the advance version of ada soil. Should be a good substrate.

[Chee Jin]

Thanks for the recommendation. I bought Gex soil already. Below are my planted tanks. I hope the plants survive without CO2. Please feel free to provide feedback and comments.

[Shadow]

is that a hair grass on left hand side? if so, seperate them into small clumps, each clumps about 5-10 leaves

[Chee Jin]

Hi Shadow,

Yes, it is hair grass at the left hand side. What is the reason for 5 to 10 leaves per clump? Some of my clumps are currently 10 leaves, some 30 leaves. Does too much together = no space to grow? I am trying to understand and learn.

[marle]

went to colourful lfs yesterday, the uncle was trying out a substrate that has nutrients as well as the ability to give off c02, now thats something new. Check it out, its in one of his front's display tank.

[Shadow]

smaller clumb will spread and cover the tank faster, less resistance for the runners to grow/run further. Denser clumb means the runners from the plant in the middle having problem to spread.

[Chee Jin]

ic. Will redo the hair grass then. Thanks for the advise.

[doppelbanddwarf]

Eh in fact for all your plants try to seperate them and plant them one plant at a time. You can still plant them in a clump but don't squeeze all into the same "hole".

[valice]

For the two bunch of crypts (I think, from the looks in the photo) you can leave it as it is. Just that the growth will be slightly slower.