How many packs of GEX needed? Need some advice

[hebi]

hi guys, been some time since i posted here, have been pretty busy with work and other commitments. my plan to rescape my 3ft have been delayed from early jan till now.

ok i decided to change my plans for a full moss setup with just white sand and dw. i am thinking of getting GEX substrate to fill up a corner of my 3ft for planting blyxa and and the plant people normally use as background, is it rotala something? the area will be around 30cmx30cm and for depth, how deep will be enough? im thinking if 2cm, then how many packs will i need?

off-topic: i have some guppies and a golden algae eater which i dont want already, but i dont know what to do with them. i doubt people will want them since the guppies are ugly and the golden algae eater is lazy since is large. i read somewhere that i can give them to AVA or something?

[Salphur]

Hi,
if using the GEx substrate to grow plants....i think 2 cm is rather thin and definitely not enough depth to anchor rooted plants and promote growth. A 2 inch depth would be good (around 5cm). Anyway, I believe a 2 kg pack of Gex could be sufficient for a 30x30cm planting patch.

As for the fishes, if you post FOC at the marketplace... i am sure you will get some quick replies to get them from you.

Cheers!

[illumnae]

for a 30x30cm planting patch, i'd go with a 4kg bag of Gex. just as an indication for you, i'd use 1 8kg bag for a 2x1x1 tank (2x1 floor area) and i used 5 8kg bags for my 4x2x2 tank (4x2 floor area). 4 bags was sufficient but i wanted to create a higher slope so i added the 5th bag.

[rc311]

as a newbie exp, i will suggest not to save on substrace whenever if possible unless you are on very tight budget. 2cm is really low in demand for plant to root down, unless if u dont have any need on that, then u don't need any at all. Putting just 2cm is as good as never put at all. I would strongly recommend a minimum of 4 inch for the foregound till 8 inch background if you are serious into scaping. That is my humble opinion at most....

[stephen chung]

I have a 3ft tank but I use 3x8kg (big pallet) and 2x8kg(fine pallet).

[fleekk]

I have a 81x36cm tank, I use 14kg of Gex (big pallet) to create a 3 inches base.

[hebi]

actually i'm pretty tight on budget now, so i don't really wish to spend a huge sum on substrate.currently, my 3ft tank has lapis sand which is pretty thick, almost 5inches deep as around 2inches is covered by the stand support or whatever you call it.

so now, i'm planning to remove maybe 2inches or 3inches of it so as to make the lapis sand invisible when viewed from the side and add white sand and GEX on top of it. so in actual fact, below the sand and GEX substrate, there will still be at least 2 inches of gravel for the plant to root.

illumnae: by the amount you use, can i say one 8kg pack is far more than enough? erm theres no 4kg pack right?

rc311: yea i'm serious about this if not i won't be planning so long. regarding the depth, its only needed if i want plants to root right? if just using plain white sand and not any plants, just a thin layer will do? anyway, i hav 18kg of jbj white sand.

[o2bubble]

For GEX, there are only 2 sizes, 1 kg and 8k if I'm not wrong. You can always call Clementi or NA to find out from the shops themselves. Talk to Mr Chan if you visit NA to get. He will be glad to advice you on this problem.

[illumnae]

actually, for Gex there's 8kg, 4kg, 2kg and 800g

[rc311]

actually i'm pretty tight on budget now, so i don't really wish to spend a huge sum on substrate.currently, my 3ft tank has lapis sand which is pretty thick, almost 5inches deep as around 2inches is covered by the stand support or whatever you call it.

so now, i'm planning to remove maybe 2inches or 3inches of it so as to make the lapis sand invisible when viewed from the side and add white sand and GEX on top of it. so in actual fact, below the sand and GEX substrate, there will still be at least 2 inches of gravel for the plant to root.

illumnae: by the amount you use, can i say one 8kg pack is far more than enough? erm theres no 4kg pack right?

rc311: yea i'm serious about this if not i won't be planning so long. regarding the depth, its only needed if i want plants to root right? if just using plain white sand and not any plants, just a thin layer will do? anyway, i hav 18kg of jbj white sand.

Hi hebi,

Yeah, the depth really depend on what you going to plant. If you are going for moss then you don't actually need any substrate at all.

I tried to save on my soil previously by replacing some portion with sand but those root plants dont grow well at all (from the base of tank, 1inch of sand follow by 2 inch of sub, follow by 1 inch of sand..., don't know where I got the idea )

After I rescape and removing those sand with substrate, it start to grow... you will see new shoot very soon. I suppose you can fill the 4 edge with the lapis sand as well as a thin layer on top of the substrate. That is what I am having except for the edges. From my experience, 2cm is not enough for the plant to root down.

[hebi]

i'm going to background plants which i don't know the names and blyxa japonica.

my idea of using the lapis sand is so i dont need to spend on another pack of GEX to fill up the bottom part of the tank that wont be seen anyway as it will be covered by the stand support. think if let say the vol is 30cmx30cmx5cm, one pack of 4kg won't be enough right? think i will get a 8kg pack instead.

[rc311]

if i recall correctly, someone ever told me that 1kg of soil = 1 litre so if i am right, you may want to use this to calculate the soil needed.

[illumnae]

1kg of water = 1 litre. given that the soil is lighter than water (notice some grains will float until they absorb enough water to sink. the other grains sink because they absorb water), 1 litre of soil is lighter than 1kg. for a rough estimate, you can probably take 8kg of Gex to = 9 litres, since the large bag of Gex contains just about as much soil as 9 litres of ADA soil

[hebi]

ok. thanks i think i will get a 8kg pack, just to play safe.