This is my son's aquarium we just started a few months ago. He picked out all the decor and since then we've decided we'd prefer to move to a planted tank versus the plastic. I'm curious your input on how best to transition. We currently just have aquarium sand as our substrate. Fish include julii corydoras, pristella tetras, and male (we think?) guppies.
We've considered just using root tabs, but we've also considered changing out the substrate … but that feels like a massive undertaking? Any insight into what would be the best long-term solution?
And if it's changing substrate, tips on how to do that with an established tank?
Posted by kyleneum13
4 Comments
i’ve had great success with root tabs, i don’t think you need to go through completely changing out substrate. i use flourish tabs. i’m also curious what size the tank is? usually i can estimate but i really can’t tell off the dimensions, lol
Change the substrate that is the best option
Personally,
I would lean heavily towards plants you can attach above your substrate so you don’t have to worry about root tabs. Anubias (all varieties: nana, barteri, petite, etc.), Java Fern, Bucephalandra, Bolbitis – can all be attached to driftwood, rock or decorations using the Gel Gorilla Glue or thread.
You can also explore floaters like red root floaters, frogbit, water spangles or duckweek (they’re both fast growing, need monthly thinning out) and riccia.
Additionally, you can also look in to Riparium type deal where you have your aquatic plants in the tank and a couple house plants through the top of the tank. (My current and favorite aesthetic goal)
Plants like Pothos or Monstera do well with nitrates. They’re heavy absorbers and grow fast, they’ll require monthly root trims to keep from truly establishing in your substrate (yes, the roots will get that long). Other options are peace lily, lucky bamboo or philodendron and generally not as heavy absorbers or as fast growing.
All this to say, I’d rather do the work to buy some rock I love the look of (dragon stone is my personal favorite, slate stone second) and attach tons of plants to them. Still an undertaking but you don’t have to mess with your substrate
I went from plastic Glofish tank with neon gravel to planted tank with fluval stratum. It really wasn’t hard to make the change. My recommendation is to take a day or two to remove the sand and other plastic parts you want to remove. Wait a day or two to make sure your tank doesn’t crash (nitrogen cycle). Then slowly dump some stratum in there. Do not pre rinse it even though the bag says to. Put it in the tank and the tank will go dark and muddy looking. That’s fine. It’ll settle in a few hours and look clean again. Then start putting whatever plants you want. That’s what I did with my tank and it worked wonderfully. Here’s a pic of my tank now:
https://preview.redd.it/p4qbul2kehlg1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=baaae552497cc4536e8dec7d76b251126f66530a