How deep should my substrate be?

[lettuceman44]

Hey guys, I'm wondering how deep should I make my substrate?

The only plants I'll be planting will be the beginner/hardy plants like the ones listed in the easiest plants for beginner sticky.

I was thinking 2 inches should be good? I just want to double check though.

[homemadepopcorn]

Should be fine... it really doesn't matter much but more is better than less especially if you are going with stem or rooting plants.

Whats your substrate?

[mizzoutank]

+1 to HomeadePopcorn

There is a balance of giving the roots enough depth/cushion for your decorations and look.
But if it is tooooooo deep, you can get a lot of waste/food trapped deep and that can be a headache for your water quality.

[homemadepopcorn]

+1 to that as well.

I get a lot of poop in my sand, mostly because I have a little poop-machine of a pleco, but I grow tons of fast growing plants like java moss, anacharis, cabomba, which take care of any water quality problems for me.

Also, it seems to help out my swords since the sand is anything but nutritious.

[Lady Hobbs]

I go 3" but if you are just putting plants in the back and sides, you can leave less in the front and bank it up so it's deeper in the back. If not deep enough, stem plants will just pull out.

[Kjmov4]

Yeah found that out the hard way with stem plants. I'm at about 2 inches and between the frog and loaches i normally find at least one stem plant floating at the top every morning. getting real tired of replanting.

[RainbowDragon28]

I would go with 3". I did 2" but I'm having the same issue with floating stem plants. Pond weed is another easy/hardy that would do well with 3" dept substrate.

[Lady Hobbs]

You have to have enough substrate to hold the plant down and also some plants get a pretty decent root system. I would not go with less than 3".

[lettuceman44]

Thanks for the tip guys. I got enough substrate for about 2"-3".

It won't be even, so the places with stem plants I'll make 3".

[homemadepopcorn]

Good call.