Plant Substrate

[~Col~]

PhillipOrigami - Amazon cannot ship to Australia. Thanks anyway though.

dmagerl - I'll see if there is anything equivalent to that in Australia.

Cermet - Can I mix something like eco-complete with sand though? I thought that the way it works mixing it would make all the sand go to the bottom and leave the larger stuff on top? That's why I was thinking of putting it along the back of the tank and sand at the front so they don't mix as much?

pjaldave - How safe is that? I'd be worried about chemicals etc in the soil.

Thanks everyone! I'll have to keep looking for stuff available in Australia I guess.

[pjaldave]

Not too sure about the chemicals that is put into top soil. I just know most planted tanks have used soil underneath the gravel. It was just a suggestion might be worth looking into.

[~Col~]

pjaldave - I'll definitely check into it. Thanks again!

[~Col~]

Okay, so I've emailed a heap of aquarium stores within a 100k radius (62mile?).

Asked them what they stock, how much and what their recommendations are.

We'll see how many reply...

[leaveittoweaver]

PhillipOrigami - Amazon cannot ship to Australia. Thanks anyway though.

dmagerl - I'll see if there is anything equivalent to that in Australia.

Cermet - Can I mix something like eco-complete with sand though? I thought that the way it works mixing it would make all the sand go to the bottom and leave the larger stuff on top? That's why I was thinking of putting it along the back of the tank and sand at the front so they don't mix as much?

pjaldave - How safe is that? I'd be worried about chemicals etc in the soil.

Thanks everyone! I'll have to keep looking for stuff available in Australia I guess.

If you go the top soil route, just look for an organic top soil with nothing else in it at your local garden centers. Don't buy anything with fertilizers. A lot of people use Miracle Gro Organic, but I don't know if they have that in Australia.

[Lady Hobbs]

How about the Flourite Black Sand? You could mix that with your current sand.

[enzof9]

Won't 1 and a half inch of top soil topped with 1 inch fine gravel do the work? No to mention it would be a lot cheaper.

Yeah, but maintaining the tank (i.e. gravel vacuuming, moving plants, trimming, etc.) is alot harder, I did this and don't want to ever do a dirt substrate again.

[leaveittoweaver]

Yeah, but maintaining the tank (i.e. gravel vacuuming, moving plants, trimming, etc.) is alot harder, I did this and don't want to ever do a dirt substrate again.

You don't really need to gravel vac with a true dirted tank, just change the water.

But I agree it sucks not being able to move the plants.

[~Col~]

How about the Flourite Black Sand? You could mix that with your current sand.

I love the look of this but I'm having trouble sourcing this at the moment. If I could get it readily I would. Everywhere I've contacted so far within a reasonable driving distance is out of stock and haven't gotten back to me about ordering some in. Others farther away have it but the price they are charging to ship it...it would be cheaper to do the whole tank in eco-complete.

As for the top soil option, everything I've read says that it breaks down after a while and ends up mushy and you have to redo the tank periodically. Not something I'd want to do.

Still waiting on replies from a couple of the aquarium stores. Meanwhile I'm boiling two new pieced of driftwood and am going to look up more about plants.

Thanks for your help everyone!!