Cloudy calamity!!

[Encruste8z]

Being new to the planted aquarium world, i guessed this would be my first major mistake thus far , in laying out the substrate material. From various websites and other materials in books i have encountered, i was planning to set-up a cheap,cost-effective base layer for my first planted tank...alas, i had chosen cocopeat..(the one's u find in Cold Storage) and bought 1.5L pack of it+Sphagnum Moss. The tank i was planning to use had already been filled with tons upon tons of fishes...therefore i decided to skip transplanting them to another tank as it would be back-breaking. I opted for the easy way out and only took out half the water(mine's an 21 U.S gal tank).It didnt cross my mind at that time that once i layed out the first batch of the mixed substrate in the half-laden water the whole thing would start to float about and create a sickly mess. (So Sua Ku) Aniwae i dumped the rest of the mixture into my mom's potted plants..no wastage hehe.. . But now im stuck wit tiz disaster .. and tried to clear the mess i created, with loads of clarifiers and did kH,pH & gH tests... though there wasnt any significant alterations...thank god. But it was a demoralizing experience,though I still very badly wanna set-up my prototype planted palace...guess i'll juz have to do it the more expensive way then...Sorry 4 the grandmother story...so this is my question :

Are there any kind bros out there who would be able to recommend certain good types of clay-based substrates,namely

• the brand(ADA, Seachem,etc)?
  approx.pricing,?
  availability(trouble finding seachem products at most LFSes)?
  the quantity for a 2" * 1" * 1.5" tank?
  whether it is best-used standalone? or mixed with other plant-fortifying high-in-nutrients substrate?
  the lifespan effectiveness of the substrate(usually what i heard was two years++ , then they're as good as worthless isn't it) and ways to replace it once it's gone defunct after the 2 yrs...(correct me if im wrong)

P.S : thanks for takin' ur time in listenin' to this newbie in need....

[Encruste8z]

Another question i didnt specify , is that clay-based types are dense(sink to the bottom of the aquarium) and porous in nature right? Hope u guys can help me wit' that out too.

[geoffrey]

You are going to repeat the same mistake again if you are not going to fish out everything from the existing tank. Unless you are using ADA, it is better to have a layer of base fertiliser covered with inert gravels.

[juggler]

Actually you could have, as mentioned in Diana Walstad's book, wrapped and packed the soil into brown paper or envelopes to create slabs of soil. Then try inserting them beneath the gravel. Once all are in place, you can just leave the paper there to disintegrate away or to make the process faster, you can use a knife to stab a few holes in it.

Right now, since the tank is messy with cocopeat and moss, you just use a net to fish it out and let the filter do the rest of the cleaning.