# Natural Substrate



## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

While setting up a couple of NPTs I decided on natural substrates using 0.5 cuft of natural sand and 0.5 cuft of natural pea gravel over 1.0 cuft of organic choice. These amounts were calculated beforehand to provide appx 1" layer of each organic and then the sand/gravel mix in a 20 gallon and a 125 gallon tank. I wasn't sure how the sand/gravel mix would work because of the settling that was expected, but for a natural look I am quite pleased. Of course, once the ground covers fill in it won't matter because I'll only see the substrate at the edge of the glass, but for now it looks nice with some areas that are gravelly and others areas of sand.

Here are some pics of the edges that show the settling that occured and the differences in depths.


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