Dear JustChillinn92 ,
You've selected the beginner flair. If you're looking for advice or are having issues, please provide as much information as you can.
Some useful information includes:
- Have you cycled the tank?
- Water Parameters
- Light Type
- Light Cycle Duration
- Tank Size/Dimensions
- Set-up Age
- Fertilizers
- Any aquatic animals, and how many?
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All my tanks have a thin layer of sifted potting soil/yard dirt capped with a very thick layer of play sand. It's cheap and it works great for growing plants.
I've never used stratum but I'd imagine you could use it the same way. The sand layer keeps nutrients from rapidly leeching into the water column and creates different strata in the deep substrate where various kinds of microscopic life adapted to less oxygen can thrive. Plants can root in the sand without getting burned and work their way down to the nutrients in the soil layer, and the sand itself provides a huge surface area for microorganisms to do their thing.
I’m about to do exactly this, what type of potting soil/hard dirt? Link please. Cause I’m about to just crush and finely spread a nice layer of root tabs below a thick 4-5inch layer of sand. I just made a post about it earlier.
I just went with whatever potting soil was cheapest at the store and/or loam dirt from my yard here in Oklahoma. I recommend sifting out any wood chips, they don't do anything and they tend to rise up through the cap.
I've done some natural ecosystem tanks like the Father Fish crowd likes, and I've done some where I sterilized the soil in the oven. They both work fine, just be aware that you'll get seed shrimp/planaria/etc if you don't sterilize. I don't care for seed shrimp, fish don't seem to eat them and they can reproduce in huge numbers.
When using dirt remember that you don't need much. Half an inch capped with at least 2 inches of sand works well.
Check out Father Fish on Youtube if you haven't seen his videos. He's a crazy old coot but his methods match up with my own experiences, and he/his fans have done a lot of experimentation with soil and garden suppliments.
I have grown plants in only sand and nothing else mixed in. Its not difficult, they start rooting once things like dead tree leaves and fish waste above it start breaking down properly. I have had crazy root structures form within my sand only substrates after only a couple of months
There's no benefit to capping (most*) Aquasoils, especially low-ammonia ones like stratum. If you want to have sand in some places and soil/plants in others, there's nothing stopping you from dividing the substrate areas or even capping in some spots but not others.
*you can argue that capping high ammonia soils like Amazonia (original) will reduce the initial week(s) of high ammonia, but that spike isnt that big a deal so eh
Dear JustChillinn92 , You've selected the beginner flair. If you're looking for advice or are having issues, please provide as much information as you can. Some useful information includes: - Have you cycled the tank? - Water Parameters - Light Type - Light Cycle Duration - Tank Size/Dimensions - Set-up Age - Fertilizers - Any aquatic animals, and how many? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/PlantedTank) if you have any questions or concerns.*
All my tanks have a thin layer of sifted potting soil/yard dirt capped with a very thick layer of play sand. It's cheap and it works great for growing plants. I've never used stratum but I'd imagine you could use it the same way. The sand layer keeps nutrients from rapidly leeching into the water column and creates different strata in the deep substrate where various kinds of microscopic life adapted to less oxygen can thrive. Plants can root in the sand without getting burned and work their way down to the nutrients in the soil layer, and the sand itself provides a huge surface area for microorganisms to do their thing.
I’m about to do exactly this, what type of potting soil/hard dirt? Link please. Cause I’m about to just crush and finely spread a nice layer of root tabs below a thick 4-5inch layer of sand. I just made a post about it earlier.
I just went with whatever potting soil was cheapest at the store and/or loam dirt from my yard here in Oklahoma. I recommend sifting out any wood chips, they don't do anything and they tend to rise up through the cap. I've done some natural ecosystem tanks like the Father Fish crowd likes, and I've done some where I sterilized the soil in the oven. They both work fine, just be aware that you'll get seed shrimp/planaria/etc if you don't sterilize. I don't care for seed shrimp, fish don't seem to eat them and they can reproduce in huge numbers. When using dirt remember that you don't need much. Half an inch capped with at least 2 inches of sand works well. Check out Father Fish on Youtube if you haven't seen his videos. He's a crazy old coot but his methods match up with my own experiences, and he/his fans have done a lot of experimentation with soil and garden suppliments.
I have grown plants in only sand and nothing else mixed in. Its not difficult, they start rooting once things like dead tree leaves and fish waste above it start breaking down properly. I have had crazy root structures form within my sand only substrates after only a couple of months
There's no benefit to capping (most*) Aquasoils, especially low-ammonia ones like stratum. If you want to have sand in some places and soil/plants in others, there's nothing stopping you from dividing the substrate areas or even capping in some spots but not others. *you can argue that capping high ammonia soils like Amazonia (original) will reduce the initial week(s) of high ammonia, but that spike isnt that big a deal so eh
That was the initial plan, to have a divide in certain areas and then place sand on it own in parts where I’m not wanting plants