Planted tank substrate depth

[DiscusnAfricans]

I'm not great with planted tanks, but I like keeping plants in with my discus. I've always had trouble keeping the plants rooted in my substrate. I know its not very thick, so I'm trying to find out the ideal depth to build it up to. Also, how do you actively manage keeping such a deep bed clean? I know toxic bacteria can build in deeper gravel beds, so how do you prevent the bacteria from forming? How do you clean if you have sand over a coarse gravel, such as fluorite? Are there plants that have strong roots but don't need a deep bed? I know there are a few plant people on here, any info is appreciated.

 

[ltrepeter2000]

You dont usually clean the bed at all, the plants break down the materials in the bed and use it to grow so you typically just do water changes from the water column. "Ideal Bed" depth will vary by the plant, but for low growing mid to foreground plants, 1.5 to 3 inches, for deeper rooters, 3-4 inches. Sagittaria subulata will grow a strong shallow root bed, spreads by runners. There are others but it depends on the look you are trying to achieve and the space/lighting/dosing schedule that you have. Just a start, I will let some of the others chime in.

 

[George]

Unless you are satisfied with floating plants, That about sums it up. You would be suprised at some of the plants that will grow floating. I even use floating Val in two of my tanks.

George

 

[iamzrad]

My planted tank has a mix of small black gravel and eco-complete. 1lbs eco to 3lbs gravel.
Which contains vals, swords, microswords, teardrops, anubias, ludwigia, and corkscrew and they all do fine.
My bed starts at 2.5" out front and goes to 4" at the back. And I never "clean" the substrate, plants do the cleaning.

If you don't want to worry about your substrate, I suggest adhering some plants to driftwood. Anubias will grow on driftwood, or you could buy an already grown combo at a LFS.

 

[DonkeyFish]

Yeah! What everyone else said.

One thing though... if you're mixing sand with a larger substrate I do hope you don't expect the sand to stay on top! You can tempt fate for awhile by having the sand part thick, but the first time you DO try to clean the gravel, or you uproot/move/plant a plant the larger gravel underneath will come up and the sand will sift down. I've got a tank I thought I'd be clever with and do just that... and it has been the bane of my existence since day three.

Of course you can also always use those lead plant weights for bunches of stems... not a perfect solution, or necessarily the best, but it works.