# Help picking a substrate? And a few other questions...



## Samm (Aug 20, 2016)

Hello all! So I'm planning on making my 10 gallon tank more plant-friendly, but I'm stuck on which is the best substrate to choose. I currently have standard gravel. 
I'm going to keep it a low tech tank, but I do plan on getting a few rooted plants such as dwarf sag. I also want to have some java moss carpeting. I currently have java fern, anubias and bacopa floating around. 
Seachem stratum, eco complete and aqua soil are a few I've seen online.. Please share your experiences and help me choose! Also, will I still have to "gravel vac" the new substrate during water changes? Or does the fish/snail waste get absorbed?


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## khaotickross (May 28, 2017)

I know there are many others and probably better out the but in one of my tanks I've been using fluval plant and shrimp stratum capped... Well it was capped with black sand now it's more mixed. Its worked well for me, my plants stay down and grow fairly well. The only thing I really have to pull out is any plant matter. But my tank is cherry shrimp and a couple snails so not a lot of waste floating around. I do know a few people with heavily planted tanks and low stocking who don't gravel vac they just do plain water changes

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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

My heavily planted 8.6 gallon has 100% Fluval Plant and Shrimp Stratum. When I do water change, I still vacuum.


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## khaotickross (May 28, 2017)

ryry2012 said:


> My heavily planted 8.6 gallon has 100% Fluval Plant and Shrimp Stratum. When I do water change, I still vacuum.


Yeah, but with just the shrimp and a couple snail in mine there's not much in the way of waste.

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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

I do vacuum because my fish get live food and I have a lot of ramshorn snails that poop a lot. To be honest, I can't really find left over worms though... One more thing; I like vacuum clean my tanks!


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## khaotickross (May 28, 2017)

Ah yeah the live food and the mass ramshorns would do it

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## sabrinah (Jan 2, 2015)

I've has various kinds of substrate. Eco complete is good and all the plants do well, but it is fairly sharp so it wouldn't be good to keep corydoras and loaches on it. It could easily wear down their barbels. I vacuum the areas that aren't currently planted. Once the plants grow in and the substrate is mostly covered I'll only vacuum the areas I feed Repashy in. 

I wouldn't do aqua soil unless you plan on doing more rooted plants because it's so dang expensive. 

My current favorite substrate is a dirt tank (miracle grow organic choice potting soil) with a sand cap (tahitian moon sand). I have loads of heavy root feeders and I never vacuum the sand (yes, it is possible to vacuum sand). I have Malaysian trumpet snails to stir everything up for me. If I accidentally over feed I may lightly go over the surface of the substrate but the snails can easily handle it before the food fouls the water.The only downside to a dirt tank is the massive mess that happens if you want to take a plant out. I moved around and removed a fair number of plants recently and the dirt cloud was impressive.


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## Veloran (Jun 28, 2014)

I've used inert substrates.
I love the look of the Tahitian Moon Black sand but I could never get it to work with live plants (maybe some MTSs would help out).
With the EcoComplete (inert but has a high CEC value), I've had a plant explosion in a tank I pretty much neglected with the exception of putting in root tabs. Problem with Ecocomplete is until the plants developed deep root structures, I constantly was dealing with runaway floaters.


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## Samm (Aug 20, 2016)

sabrinah said:


> I've has various kinds of substrate. Eco complete is good and all the plants do well, but it is fairly sharp so it wouldn't be good to keep corydoras and loaches on it. It could easily wear down their barbels. I vacuum the areas that aren't currently planted. Once the plants grow in and the substrate is mostly covered I'll only vacuum the areas I feed Repashy in.
> 
> I wouldn't do aqua soil unless you plan on doing more rooted plants because it's so dang expensive.
> 
> My current favorite substrate is a dirt tank (miracle grow organic choice potting soil) with a sand cap (tahitian moon sand). I have loads of heavy root feeders and I never vacuum the sand (yes, it is possible to vacuum sand). I have Malaysian trumpet snails to stir everything up for me. If I accidentally over feed I may lightly go over the surface of the substrate but the snails can easily handle it before the food fouls the water.The only downside to a dirt tank is the massive mess that happens if you want to take a plant out. I moved around and removed a fair number of plants recently and the dirt cloud was impressive.


Yes I saw that aqua soil is pretty pricey! What about a mixture of eco complete and the miracle grow soil?


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## Samm (Aug 20, 2016)

ryry2012 said:


> I do vacuum because my fish get live food and I have a lot of ramshorn snails that poop a lot. To be honest, I can't really find left over worms though... One more thing; I like vacuum clean my tanks!


I only have 1 betta and I feed pellets, but I also have quite a few ramshorn snails! I was just thinking that vacuuming would uproot the plants


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

How I used the word "vacuum" was a bit exaggerated. I use an airline tubing to clean the tank. I hover it very close to the substrate to remove waste. When I clean the spot where live food usually sink, I disturb the surface of the substrate trying to float the leftover. 


I think it would be a good to idea to get dark substrate so that snail poops wouldn't catch your eye too much. They poop a lot!


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