Sharing my experience having both substrate planted tanks, and non substrate planted tanks. I would call non substrate a bare bottom tank but last time I did that a teenager who had never owned a bare bottom tank or a no substrate tank argued with me that my tank is called a no substrate tank. So I googled that and it had never appeared on the internet before so I guess I’m the first. Just kidding. But that experience the first time I shared photos here of my tank, with various people truly intrigued wanting to know more, and an equal amount triggered by why I would do such a thing, I walked away with negative comment karma, something I didn’t even know was a thing. Really made me feel like Reddit is like a fishkeeper Facebook group but on steroids, as the use of a username vs “real” name seems to really give folks freedom to say things that would be pretty cringeworthy in real life. Why do I explain all this? Because since that happened I quit caring about those type of folks on social media that are ruining the hobby. Great example is there is a million people in this sub but only a handfull answering questions because the rest are simply over the self taught experts who never learned from personal experience and have a closed mind .
Yeah. Imagine having to be defensive over a freaking fish tank and say all that up front to clear the air before posting photos of your tank.
You see, I’m in a new world doing these tanks with no substrate. A new frontier. Barren land where few have traveled before. Mainly using pots and stuff filled with substrate because somewhere along the way they convinced themselves blocking flow to the roots is a must with rooted plants.
Anyways here’s my tank. I add fertilizer once or twice a month when I do a water change.
I do water changes because in nature there is a thing called rain. I don’t understand the more recent obsession with a lot of people searching to find the “perfect” tank that doesn’t need water changes. Any heavily planted tank I’ve ever owned has used up all the nutrients to the point I needed to supplement additional ferts. That doesn’t mean minerals and other things aren’t slowly building up. It also creates a situation where your tank slowly goes farther and farther away from your source water in all elements, meaning when you do ever do a water change in the future, your adding water completely different than your tank water.
So yeah water change a few x a month I don’t have a set schedule.
I use thrive s ferts because I got an almost full bottle with a used tank a long time ago. I do about half of the dosage amount on the bottle.
There’s shrimp, maybe 30 chilis, and ramshorns in this tank.
Plenty of seed shrimp, cyclops, and I feed live moina.
I haven’t had any algae problems other than little bits here and there.
I will get a little staghorn on the sponge filters if I go too long without cleaning them.
Overall the main benefit to doing this, in my experience, is the plants can be moved very quickly and easily. My original intent was to just hold plants cuttings in place without floating them so they continued to grow straight and not get gnarled and twisted like they do when floated, until I built up enough cuttings to make a sale or trade locally. At one point I ended up weighing down a sword plant and forgot about it. It was purchased from PetSmart in the tube and was emmersed leaves.
It shed the emmersed leaves and eventually grew in all submerged leaves and ended up doing quite well, and that’s when it occurred to me that there is a turrets syndrome like response within the hobby that every time a photo or question involving swords come up we must blurt out “heavy root feeder plant deep in substrate and add root tabs”. Like being pulled from the matrix it all hit me. Root tabs are recommended in gravel and required in sand because substrate is actually…. Bad… for your plants in the way of blocking new nutrient filled water from reaching plant roots. There’s a reason why hydroponic systems use flow. And in most aquariums the water surrounding and soaking the substrate level of the tank is stagnant.
Now I know me just simply sharing my personal experience with my fish tanks is too revolutionary for a lot of the newer folks on Reddit to this hobby and can even trigger some. So I apologize. I know this is an offensive way to keep plants. But somebody’s gotta do it.
All that being said let me share another thing from my personal experience. Just an opinion worth what you paid for it. The best substrate in this hobby is slept on and misunderstood. The manufacturer did a horrible job promoting it in the beginning. They did not do a good job explaining what it is and why it is that way on the packaging. When it first came out a few reviews got left on Amazon that it altered ph, which turned out to be untrue, yet the echo chamber online ran with it and many became afraid. In addition to that most people thought it was aqua soil they didn’t even realize it’s just black coated terra cotta solid balls. Perfectly round. Like hydroponic substrate. This substrate allows the most water flow of any other substrate of reasonable size. What I mean by that is marbles would obviously allow more water flow to plant roots. But my point is the nature of the substrate being a perfect circle allows max flow. In addition to that the gaps are large enough that baby shrimp and snails can worth their way from top to bottom within the substrate hiding from predators and feasting on the infusoria within. The large gaps allow easy growth of roots. About the only downsize I have found to this substrate is it’s hard to plant hair grass in. About the smallest plant I’ve gotten to carpet in it is pearlweed due to the large gaps in between pieces. I included a photo of one of my tanks using that substrate. It’s been on clearance on Amazon for months maybe over a year and it’s no longer sold in stores and I would bet will be discontinued once the remaining stock is sold on Amazon.
Well that’s my two cents on my personal experience . I had pretty much decided to walk away from the idea of posting anything or commenting on Reddit with my personal experience at times it doesn’t match the ideals of the almighty echo chamber within this hobby however I’ve decided that I should at least do my part in spreading my experience because what I’m doing is apparently very rare. I may be the only one doing it. So.. Let the downvotes begin 😉
Posted by skepticalaquatics