# substrate?



## bluenosebully (Jan 23, 2011)

Hi I'm getting ready to set up my 75g for my show tank and I'm looking for substrate advice. I've had fine sand in there before I took it down to move I like the clean natural look of the sand but I can't keep it clean the fish move it and then the waist and sunken food gets buried and even with my water changes and vacuuming I've looked into crushed shells but my lfs knows even less then me any advice would be great


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

I use Activ Flora its suppose to really help with the plants and to supposedly help with cycling. 
Activ·Flora™ Planted Aquarium Substrate by World Wide Imports Ent., Inc.










thats what it looks like in my tank I use the Floralite one


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

If you're worried about dirty-looking substrate, get a natural or black-colored substrate. I use Fluorite, but Eco-Complete, PC Select (might be the same brand), or any other substrate like that would work great. Sadly, I cannot say I know of any way to keep clean sand looking clean short of vacuuming like there's no tomorrow.

Several other members on here suggest lining the bottom of the tank with some peat moss, 1" thick, before adding the sand. This helps several things like GH buffering and adding nutrients for plants, but I'm very unfamiliar with the method so I cannot say. Peat moss can be found cheaply and easily at most hardware stores in the gardening department.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I use caribsea(same brand as the eco complete,BTW)voodoo river natural substrate.Its black like the eco complete,and is basically the same thing though i think the eco complete adds some nutirents.The grain size of the substrate is from pea sized to sand,and some larger pieces.Plants seem happy with it,they show out very nicely against the black and the fish seem more colorful too.


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