# help with setting up substrate



## christanto (Dec 23, 2004)

Hello all,

For the past two months, I have been researching and studying aquatic plants and aquascaping. I spent lots of time reading Amano books and surfing the internet, looking at hundreds of plants and planted tanks from all over the world. Now, I think its time for me to create my own planted tank.

And over the two months, I bought a couple of things thats required prior to setting up a tank...

-26 gal. bow front
-24" USA current lighting (2x65watts)
-1 bag caribsea eco-complete substrate
-1 bag flourite brown and 1 bag flourite red
-1 hagen nutrafin CO2 setup (for now)
-1 flourish fert.
(big thanks to Stacey @ staceyspets for all of this  )

Now, I'm ready to start but I have a question about my substrates. Can I mix all 3 together or should I put the Eco-complete on the bottom then put the flourite red/brown on top?

and how many inches of substrate should I put?


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Put the Eco-Complete above the two Flourite bags, but I don't know if it will cover everything. Can you trade in one of the Flourite bags for an Eco-Complete. I recommend 3", where the back is sloping towards the front. 

To wash Flourite, wet all the contents, let it dry in the sun and lay it down, slowly fill...No cloudiness!


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## christanto (Dec 23, 2004)

Oh okay, the flourite will be on the bottom with the eco-complete on top. So when I plant my plants, the roots will be in the flourite layer, giving it oxygen right?


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

The Flourite won't give your plant roots any additional O2, but it should be a decent source for micros like Fe.

Is there a reason why you decided to choose three different substrates? Most times when someone mixes substrates it's to use something inexpensive and inert (like gravel or sand) with something fortified (or with higher CEC like laterite, Flourite, etc...). But you've got three bags of prime stuff.

If you like the look of black substrate you could use some black sand over the Flourite (is it bad luck to use black sand or is that just taking lava rocks?). Also, if you are going to mix the Eco-Complete and Flourite I'd suggest you take the Flourite Red back for either another bag of regular Flourite, or like Raul suggests, another bag of Eco.


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