What's your choiced gravel/sand for a planted tank setup?

[Rokerites]

Those were the day that the only gravel available to plant tank keeper are plain gravel.

These day the range of sand/gravel available to us are bewildering.
With so many brands and type of gravel/sand in the market, have always wonder what is everybody choice pick. Would also like to hear the reasons behind their choices.

To start the ball rolling, I am using ADA Amazon gravel. I choose it because its proven to be good and that with nutrients built in, it would act as a jump start for the plants to root in.

Hope fellow AQ members joint in this thread to share their valuable opinion. This would definitely be of help especially to anyone about to engage in the setting up of their first planted tank.

[stormchild]

I have tried ADA amazonia and Seachem Onyx sand. Both works pretty well for me. Amazonia gives you a lower PH. Onyx sand gives you a higher PH. But plant growth is about the same. Provided the plants you choose are not the soft water or low PH loving type.

[BFG]

Those were the day that the only gravel available to plant tank keeper are plain gravel.

Yup, it was a big step forward from using the gravel/JBL fert combo. I've spent a few hundred dollars trying to grow tonina, eriocaulon sp of plant only to see them perish away a few weeks later. I think it was a few years back then, 2002 and earlier. Back then a pot of hemiantheus callitroides from Tropica would sell for $45 !!! And there were queues of people lining up at the Tropica booth during Aquarama 2003 ( I think ). Tonina and eriocaulon sp were $7 per stem or higher. I even remembered there was a species of plant that were quite similar to eriocaulon sp but cost a whopping $20 per stem! With the arrival of the ADA substrate, the price tumbled to a few dollars only with the tonina and eriocaulon currently selling a few dollars a pot. These exotic plants back then was the hardest to get hold of and many did not achieve good growth with the normal gravel setup. They became weeds when planted with the amazonia substrate and eventually their value took a nose dive.

New hobbyist coming into this hobby get the benefit of getting these plants at a lower rate today as compared to back then when I started the planted tank hobby. We used to drool looking at pics of HC covering the foreground of planted tanks from foreigner who had link pages of their website. Nowaday, seasoned hobbyist don't even bat an eyelid when such thing cross their path. I would think that the current fad is into zen aquascaping or the golden triangle ratio whatyoumightcallit. With ADA coming into the market and gaining a foothold with the hobbyist, premium plant seller are the victim of the economic, with the cheapest price that are the target of hobbyist who wish to start a new setup. It doesn't help that ADA substrate makes plant growth reaches weed like status from their exotic ranks.

And then there's some who do not favour the brand but benefit from what the substrate had caused in the local market. These naysayer will have a go at the brand anytime anywhere telling other user they are paying so much for brand instead. They didn't realise the impact of the substrate had placed in the local arena that they could go out and get some plants at dirt cheap rate. Talk is cheap it seems...........