Top 5 Substrate for Planted Aquariums

Here are my Top 5 Substrates for planted aquarium and tanks!

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For all thing aquarium related! Covering fish keeping, planted tanks to even marine and salt water reef and coral tanks!

#Fishfam

[EZBardeguez]

“Next, a word from our I don’t have any”

Is why I subscribed

[VyvienneEaux]

I'm so glad you chose regular soil as #1! I was sitting through the whole video thinking, "that's not as good as the Walstad method, " until you got to it. I don't know why people waste their money on the expensive, inferior substrates, which aren't even close to the substrate found in most lakes and rivers (whereas soil capped with sand is what I have always found out in the field when studying wetland plant species). I have limited experience with aquariums compared to you, having only set up five proper low-tech planted aquariums, but I am a professional biochemist and amateur botanist, so I spend a lot of time thinking about these topics. And I've also done many experiments with aquatic plants on my own when I was in high school, using soil as a substrate long before I ever heard of other people doing it. If I may, I'd like to leave a few of my own observations for using a soil substrate here, since I think I have a good deal of knowledge on the topic.

1) Any soil works, so long as it's good for terrestrial plants. Conventional soil does contain synthetic fertilizers, but these have never been a problem for me. You can even use soil you dug up from outside, and there's no need to try sterilizing it. If you cap your soil properly with sand (I have a good method for this below), there should be very little leaching of soil. The purpose of the soil is not so much to provide the main substrate for planting but to leach nutrients into the sand layer and provide an extra treat to any plants whose roots reach the soil layer. I have had small aquariums with garden soil and no sand cap before, and the only way I was able to achieve this was by starting out the aquarium as a terrarium (essentially the dry start method, but for a longer time) and then flooding it after the soil was fully anchored in place by plant roots.
2) There is no need to pass the soil through a seive. Just remove obnoxiously large wood pieces by hand, mostly to prevent it from interfering with planting later. Small wood pieces are fine, and will not float to the surface if you cap the soil properly.
3) Use sand, not gravel! I have never seen gravel at the bottom of a body of water that had plants growing in it. I know Cory from Aquarium Co-op, a master aquatic horticulturalist, recommends using gravel, but I do not. I'm not a master aquatic horticuluralist, but I have extensive experience with plants, including research at Harvard Herbarium, field ecology, and home tissue culture. Additionally, the gaps in gravel allow soil nutrients to leach into the water column.
4) When setting up the aquarium, waterlog the soil before putting it in the tank, compress it into a mud pie (really pack it there, the opposite of what you would want for terrestrial plants; aquatic plant roots are already adapted to low-oxygen environments, so this will not adversely affect them), and cap this with wet sand like spreading cream cheese on a bagel. If the soil is peat-heavy and/or wood-heavy, you can quickly waterlog it by wetting it with boiling water. After the soil is completely saturated with water, squeeze any air out. This will prevent the soil from expanding after the tank is set up, which has a tendency to cause the soil to engulf the sand layer, causing wood pieces to float to the surface.
5) You don't have to have a uniform substrate layer, since you're really packing the soil down. You can bank the soil up in places to make gentle slopes, so long as you can keep the sand layer on top of this adequate. In one of my aquariums, 1/4 of the aquarium is essentially bare-bottom with a pile of lava rocks atop a thin layer of aragonite (for hardness, since I keep hard-water species in that tank) filling in this gap in the substrate. I did this to create a subterranean refugium for baby shrimp and fry. It's really cool! In another tank, I have banked up the soil towards the back, using large rocks from my back yard to prevent sand from rolling downhill over time. It has created a dramatic slope that looks amazing.
6) Add Malaysian trumpet snails to every tank. They are little gardeners, working to sweep detritus under the surface of the sand so that you will never have to gravel vac again.
7) Hydrogen sulfide and CO2 gas bubbles will build up in the soil over time, but these are entirely harmless, even if trapped under the aquarium lid in continuous exchange with the water column. I don't know who think they saw their fish or inverts die from getting hit by one of these bubbles. While H2S is very toxic, if you can smell it, it is not concentrated enough to harm anything. Recklessly, I have intentionally cannulated the substrate of my aquarium in order to inhale this gas to bioassay the H2S concentration, and it is very low. The dose makes the poison.


Sorry for writing a book under your video. I know it's probably obnoxious, but I hope you will like reading my input. :)

[Bakkefication]

Been doing research for my first planted tank and this is by far the most useful channel I've found. Easy to watch and great information, don't change a thing!

[mikerusso]

Those info panels u put at the bottom just earned you my like a sub at 48 seconds into watching your channel for the first time. Awesome awesome awesome, thank you. Ok, hitting play now

[FatherFish]

You are on target. The cap is critical and sand is the preferred cap. All good. For long term systems consider supplementing the soil to provide longer lasting mineral content. As an added benefit developing a food web strengthens the cycling of nutrients allowing for even longer life for the tank. LOVE your content.

[anthonyragan]

I use eco-complete: I've had great results with it, I just wish they made a smaller, more rounded grain size.

[AlienWithInternetConnection]

Finally, someone is entertaining and informative at the same time.

[WombatMuffler]

Another con to using "organic" soil is that it is often enhanced with manure. This wouldn't be bad on it's own, but in my experience this ALWAYS comes with blue green algae outbreaks(Cyanobacteria) and if you're new to planted tanks, it will OVERWHELM YOU! If you are new to planted tanks, DO NOT TAKE THE CHEAP WAY OUT WITH ORGANIC SOIL! DO NOT DO IT! Learn how to maintain a planted tank with gravel or a reputable substrate first.

[sethdickin]

I used tropica sup, can I cap it with tropica soil , it a new tank and still have the white cloud of a new tank, could it be from the substrate and soil as it has been three weeks

[MrPimpMonkey]

You literally give me faith in humanity and great tips on fish care at the same time. Thanks brother, much love 🐟

[C.Double.]

I have used everything on your list as well as others over the past 20 years. I have to say that the most stable/sustainable substrate system I have ever used is 1/3 Flourite Onyx Sand on the bottom and 2/3 Flourite Black on top. Yes it does suck to rinse pre-install... You have to rinse the sand from the top down and stir it thoroughly, overfilling a bucket doesnt do anything for you.

The reason I stay with Flourite is because it works as well as any other substrate but its incredibly stable in regards to degradation and rearranging plants.

[DavidRodriguez-jtns]

Oh! That sponsor break😂😂...that was awesome!! I've used soil in my tank with crypts with just half an inch of small gravel over it, didn't suffer crypt melt, didn't lose any fish (they were added the same day)... AND!! it's still going strong 5 years later, as long as you know what you're doing, soil is the way to go!

[vahjra]

I've been looking for exactly this video for months now, since i've started getting into planted aquariums. Thanks. This is great information.

[tigersunruss]

Most informative quick video I've seen. I like the speed of your talking, the editing so you don't have speech with "uuuuh" in it every sentence and the overlay graphics. Very well done ( I subscribed).

[xaviergarcia]

As soon as you did the sponsors bit I immediately subscribed

[RequiemWraith]

My experience with Flourite. I used the black sand variant. I didn't wash it, and as expected it made my tank water exceptionally cloudy, it was a very opaque grey. I just added a bit of Seachem Clarity before bed, and it was crystal clear by morning. Washed the filter sponges out well and then just went from there 😊

[RaccoonCreekAquatics]

Potting soil is a great way to go!!! Personally, I don't mind paying the premium for Ada Aquasoil. You don't have to rinse it or cap it. I don't mind the increased water changes the first few weeks due to nh3 leaving.

[considerthebirds]

“Organic Disney land, add another thousand bucks....” Great info and funny! Thanks 😂🙌🏻

[nancywinter]

I have had ADA Aquasoil going for 9 years in my 75 gallon and it has not broken down. I have been very happy with it

[tropicaltanklover]

Fantastic video and so informative. Because I am a cheap-ass I used Tetra Complete and Tetra Active capped with gravel in my 50L Nano. They are cheap. Plants are growing fast and tank looks great.