# substrate question !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

ok 

im going with caribsea eco complete gravel and the existing sand that is in my tank 

im planning on leaving a layer of 1 - 1.5 inches sand and then do a caribsea eco complete layer of 1-1.5 inches 

would this be good enough for plants ?? 

sand at the bottom and eco complete gravel on the top !!!!!!!!!


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

You wanna make sure you go a bit higher than 2 inches.. some plants like to come up out of the gravel if you dont plant them deep enough.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I've always wanted to see what sand and eco look like mixed. Nobody ever wants to do that. Oh well.


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

phys said:


> You wanna make sure you go a bit higher than 2 inches.. some plants like to come up out of the gravel if you dont plant them deep enough.


I thought 1.5 and 1.5 makes 3 inches 

My question is is the arrangement layer wise fine ?

I got a 20 lb Eco and my sand righ now is more than 1.5 inches deep and the foot print if the tank is lil more than a 10 gallon as it is tall 

Around 28x12 inches 
I have no idea how many inches 20 lb Eco would do on that 

Jrman : I'm not mix the substrates I'm gonna just lay Eco over sand so all I see is blaaaack lol.


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## roacan (Dec 25, 2010)

Your not adding peat? Kinda close to a beaslbob build.

Eco and sand, not completely mixed but it's getting there slowly
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/37gal-11755.html

Small gravel from eco complete sinks down and the bigger gravel goes to the top. Not sure how it does that. Maybe due to the cory's?


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

uh.. ur right.. 1.5+1.5=3.. but i was suggesting not going any lower than 2


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I had sand and eco mixed.It looks quite nice.Decided pure black looks better.


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

huhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 

done with the change 
couldnt wait till weekend lol 

took 4 hours and 1 hr for cleaning the mess and its this time  

got to work tomm  

but yea the tank looks soo nice !!!! 
and GBRs are all over the tank.. 

i added only gbrs and octos jsut for a week then will add the other fish


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

oh yea forgot 

i never thought i was left with ant red cherry shrimp lol initially added 3 now i saw around 7 small ones but no sight of bigger ones 

and as i dropped them in the tank they disappeared again (


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

I noticed after dropping some ghost shrimp in my tank today, my black skirt tetras and GBR were just attacking them left and right. So if your cherry's are missing, your GBR may have eaten them.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Glad it went well. Eco is awesome stuff, not having to rinse it. Easiest substrate change you'll ever do.


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

Yea but I had to arrange a huge piece of dw 

Then after planting and everything I found something in the gravel tried to reach it knowing off its position 
Damn it took me 30 mins again  

But yea it looks nice


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