Substrate composition

[[17]shawn[17]]

I will be starting a new tank shortly focusing on turtle and shoal grass and I'm looking for some advice on substrate, previously I used a base of kora-lagoon followed with about 4" of oolite and 1" of a reef grade sand. This time I'm looking to do something similar but I'm looking at a base of either EcoComplete, Floramax or another FW substrate. Any thoughts?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

A seagrass tank? Awesome!

I have used EcoComplete. It's kind of neutral, not bringing any nutrients, but the capacity to hold them. I've not used Floramax. Garden soil and dirt from my yard is what I used for my manatee and shoal grasses. They are flourishing. The dirt is under a layer of sand of various grain sizes. If you choose to use dirt or soil, it's a good idea to let it soak in fresh water for a couple months beforehand. When terrestrial soil gets submerged, lots of chemical reactions, microbial activity and other mysterious things happen. So soaking it ahead of time starts you out with more stability.

Best of luck! My thread "Weeds" may be helpful.

 

[Speaker73]

Perhaps you should try using the soil that people use in freshwater planted tanks. Talking about controsoil, Tropicana soil, ADA aquasoil, etc

These contain actual nutrients that plants with root systems use.