How much soil / sand for a 5ft x 2ft tank ?

[tco]

Hi, newbie here...need advice on substrate,
Going to set up a planted 522 tank with GEX soil light green packing and black sand.
Planned to get 3 x 8kg GEX soil as base and 3 x 10kg black sand to cover on top. Is this amount of soil and sand enough ? Thanks.

[eviltrain]

Hi there, hope that my setup may help you.
For my tank ( 2feet by 1 feet) , i used up 8kg of gex soil with the thickness of 6-8 cm average out ( flat land )So i will presume you just need 5 packets of 8 kg GEX soil for ur tank to achive 5cm flat soil layout. You might need another pack or 2 to creat some slop effect.
-Enjoy your weekend, enjoy my Genting trip-

[vinz]

Simple calculation. Take the width and length of your tank in cm, multiply together with the height of substrate, then divide by 1000 to get the amount of substrate needed in litres.

If the substrate you want is sold in litres (or other unit of volume), it's straight forward.

If the substrate you want is sold in kg (or other unit of weight) then just assume that 1 kg is ABOUT 1 litre. However, as solids are more dense then water, you should overbuy by about 10% to 20%.

So if your tank is 150cm long and 60 cm wide, 3 cm of substrate is 27 litres. So you will need about 4 bags of GEX (32 kg). Or go with 3 bags if you feel 2++ cm is enough.

(if you plan to slope the substrate, just take the average between the deepest and shallowest part of your substrate.)

End of the day, is basically estimation and EYES-timation (go, see and visualise).

[tco]

Hi there, hope that my setup may help you.
For my tank ( 2feet by 1 feet) , i used up 8kg of gex soil with the thickness of 6-8 cm average out ( flat land )So i will presume you just need 5 packets of 8 kg GEX soil for ur tank to achive 5cm flat soil layout. You might need another pack or 2 to creat some slop effect.
-Enjoy your weekend, enjoy my Genting trip-

Thanks bro, enjoy your trip

Simple calculation. Take the width and length of your tank in cm, multiply together with the height of substrate, then divide by 1000 to get the amount of substrate needed in litres.

If the substrate you want is sold in litres (or other unit of volume), it's straight forward.

If the substrate you want is sold in kg (or other unit of weight) then just assume that 1 kg is ABOUT 1 litre. However, as solids are more dense then water, you should overbuy by about 10% to 20%.

So if your tank is 150cm long and 60 cm wide, 3 cm of substrate is 27 litres. So you will need about 4 bags of GEX (32 kg). Or go with 3 bags if you feel 2++ cm is enough.

(if you plan to slope the substrate, just take the average between the deepest and shallowest part of your substrate.)

End of the day, is basically estimation and EYES-timation (go, see and visualise).

Thanks bro, saw your other thread on 3ft tank setup with J Arthur Bower's Aquatic Compost. To cut cost, can i get a pack of 25Kg Aquatic compost and top cover with 5 packs of 10kg black sand, can this setup work ? compare with commercial planted soil like GEX, will this setup with Aquatic Compost too much for a newbie like me to manage in term of water perimeter, plant and fish health etc.. Thanks.

[sfk7]

With the compost setup that you have mentioned, the key is to plan your setup ahead as you would want to minimise or even better, no uprooting of your plants after planting. Personally i would prefer lapis over black quartz.

And as all planted setups goes, plant every inch of your substrate and leave no 'holes'. A good mix of fast and slow growers will aid you in keeping algae in check too.

Lastly, knowledge of the plants that you've decided. Eg. those requiring shade, height that they will grow to, will aid you immensely in deciding your scape.

My 2 cents

cheers

[tco]

With the compost setup that you have mentioned, the key is to plan your setup ahead as you would want to minimise or even better, no uprooting of your plants after planting. Personally i would prefer lapis over black quartz.

And as all planted setups goes, plant every inch of your substrate and leave no 'holes'. A good mix of fast and slow growers will aid you in keeping algae in check too.

Lastly, knowledge of the plants that you've decided. Eg. those requiring shade, height that they will grow to, will aid you immensely in deciding your scape.

My 2 cents

cheers

Thanks bro, i give it a try on the compost.