Love me some sand with a ton of pearlweed. Pearlweed trees, pearlweed walls, pearlweed bridges, pearlweed floating at the top and a good pearlweed carpet

U are my favorite plant teacher

It's decided then. My next tank will have hot pink gravel. ;)

My most successful tanks have had some aquasoil capped with pool filter sand. Water parameters play a role too (looking at you liquid rock well water).

Thank you for an excellent video! It sounds so obvious when you say it, but I had SO much struggle to pick out the substrate for the aquarium that I set up a few weeks ago. I went for all aquasoil in that one, knowing that I like the look and wanted a lot of plants. And that aquarium wasn't too big, so I could afford it. In one aquarium I have some sand, and I have tabs with nutritions crushed and spread as a layer in that one for the plants that needs that. I also have one aquarium with sand, and with this "island" of aquasoil in bags. Simply because I had both sand and aquasoil at home. Now I'm gonna start a new aquarium not having any substrate left at home, having to buy something new. This time I will spend a moment to actually learn more about the plants, to see what I'm going for and what I need. If all the plants I like pick up nutritions from the water, I will go for some kind of dark gravel that's way cheaper than aquasoil.

I use (one of your) methods now as I love swords and stems: aquasoil followed by (Brightwell) fine particle volcanic ash (RioEscuro-F) on top with some crushed coral and root tabs. I love island scapes because I have a tank viewable from the front and back and want my small schooling fish to swim completely around the front and back. I use media bags filled with fine lava stone to build a center bank and corrugated plastic inserts to minimize erosion. Your videos are invaluable and comprehensive!! Thank you!!!!!

I learnt something today 👍 I assumed stem plants were root feeders only (well mostly)

good video! clarifying how and when to use aqua soiis.

Bookmarking this one!

Great video bently thanks! ❤

thanks bentley, i needed this, its time for me to reset my tank

There's also the option of using root tabs with gravel/sand.

So many scenarios, so little time (lol). As always, your video was quite helpful. Thank you.

Way to commit Bentley. We all know there is only one way to do anything correctly and we were relying on you to tell us hahaha. Seriously, great video. I think far too many hobbyists get stuck on the idea that there really is one best way when that just isn't the case. I personally love undergravel filters, kitty litter, with a bit of aquarium gravel on top. But that's based on my preferences (for many reasons), but fully agree people can use just about anything depending on their tank, equipment, inhabitants, and plants. I sure hope we never get to the point where everyone replies on a standard checklist and no one is willing to try anything new. Best case scenario is setup a couple different tanks in different styles and see what works best for you. You have a ton of great info and I for one greatly appreciate you sharing my friend. Hope you have a fantastic day!

Love your videos Bentley!...highlights the important facts in a clear and concise way! I drove myself insane when I took up the hobby again. researched the entire internet for 'best method' and tried a deep substrate with some sort of pond soil capped with sand....put some MTS and thought it would be ok, however, this was very fine sand...few months later something disturbed the bottom and the Sulphur smell that got released was horrendous 🤢 decided that wasn't for me 😜 Then when I set up another tank to put shrimp culls etc in...I threw in a mixture of all different stuff (dirt, gravel, sand etc) that I had left over and the plants grow the best in there!! 😂🤦🏼‍♀️ I am now trying to adopt the 'lets just try it and see method' 😂 so much less stressful than going after the perfect combination 😎

Are you familiar with Pisces/Aqua Natural brand gravel? It’s a very small rounding mix of gravel…not sure if it’s considered too small for planting. There’s a midnight pearl color that looks very natural and nice.

Java fern is pretty dang bulletproof!!! I got coarse white sand in my tank and it's cool to see the Corys suck up the sand and shoot it out their gills as they're bottom feeding!!! Another cool plant/moss that feeds off the water column is subwassertang and is great for babies to hide in from the live breeders!!!🤗

Hi Bentley, Thank you for the video. I am building a new tank so it is very useful. I use florite black one tank and sand on 2. I am not a fan of sand, my plants are not at their best and it does not look as good as the florite black. I am now setting up 2 new tanks and I think I am going to go with Biostratum. Apparently is it very messy at the beginning clouding the water everytime you plant something but hopefully it is going to help the plants thriving. Have a nice day, Isabelle

Safe-T-Sorb can have a massive effect on kH and pH. My pH went from 8 to 6, and my kH is too high for most test strips and it went to zero.

Hey Bentley, thanks for another great vid! Wondering about your thoughts on DG. I only have exp with it compacted as a walkway since I'm a dry dirt horticulturist 😉. I'm setting up a 29g my son started and then abandoned and when I was at lowes (because I heard their rocks are cheaper than Home Depot) they had bags of DG. Would it compact naturally in the aquarium if used as a sand replacement, and thus cause problems? I know in the garden of you make a walk way or patio area with it and compact it down, even weeds won't grow! I don't like the look of play sand and the DG is way darker and more natural looking I think with natural stone and wood. Thanks for all the info you share with us here! You are definitely appreciated sir! Hope you have a wonderful weekend! ✌️

Future question for a video perhaps. What big store tube plants would you use? Tips on picking one that might actually do well and things to do well. (A bit of a beginner topic, but considering availability it's useful) Unfortunately my favorite big box store plant isn't even able to grow submersed.

I’ve tried planting in pool filter sand in my 125 with no luck

👍

Have had the lot...what would you have with wild discus....At £1200.???. Was thinking Amazon look... River roots ferns.... Painted tank base...bit of sand. But planted Sump..... Continuous water drip system. UK

i use wally world tank gravel and i have no issues with my rooted plants. they grow a lot. i keep about 2 inches of gravel and i never vacuum it. the whole gravel versus sand thing seems like overthinking.

hi Bentley , hope you well . i did a 3 foot tank with top soil and capped with sand . It is hands down the best tank ive ever done . Ive even got a plant ( dont know the name , maybe i can send you a pic ) that i bought as a green plant that is now a deep deep red . Aquasoil prices are just plain stupid . I bought a bad of ADA Amazonia and i used some in another tank but have quite a bit left . what i do now , and am curious to hear your thoughts , is i take a tea bag , empty it , and put aquasoil in it ,. and plant that tea bag in the substrate of my other tanks to be used as fertiilizer for the stems . is aquasoil like a fertilizerin this situation

Substrate is a fickle thing.... At least it can be. I cherished my sand tank because it reminded me of the beach. Cleaning the tank was literally playing in the sand most days. I used sand and root tabs for a while, but opted to try a sand cap and that didn't go well at all. The sand was so light, cap so thin, that the filtration always pushed it back from the front glass and exposed the soil substrate. Once that was the norm I tried what I thought was "planted tank substrate" from seachem and it's been nothing but a nightmare of BBA issues. Even now, I have the gravel itself acting like small bushes of BBA and I remove it piece by piece. (fluorite black) the substrate itself is fine, but it just did not have enough or any nutrients for the plants. It has some CEC capacity, but it's just gravel in some respect. In my last tank I used contrasoil black as a base. It's not black at all but a darker brown color. That being said I don't think I'll use anything else in future. This stuff works just fine and has a lot of characteristics I find that make it very easy to use. I love sand tanks, but needing to get a densely planted tank going is another battle in itself.

I set up a Fluval 15 flex with Aquasoil. Crypts doing well; visual appeal meh. About to set up 40 breeder, and plan to use the rest of the Aquasoil, as well as CaribSea Carolina Creek fine gravel. What is your opinion of putting the Aquasoil in media bags (one of MD fishtanks stages), and covering with the gravel? He rarely leaves his tanks set up long enough to see long term results.

My water has very high kH and gh and I've always struggled with plants except in my nano that has stratum. I want to redo my 29 and I'm torn because stratum is pricey but it's the only thing I've been successful with. Plus i have 25lbs of PFS sitting around. So I'm contemplating if i should just do all stratum or try to use my PFS (maybe a walstad?) in some capacity. And does my choice need to take my hard water into account. With kH of 11 and a gH of 16 ive had people tell me that I need to cut with RO to be successful.

hi

I'm either blind, stupid, or unlucky and quite possibly all three lol but I don't think I've ever come across the sand at 5:56 and that's what I was looking for to do a cory tank with cause I feel like it pops a little more than the pool filtration sand I typically use

Hay Bentley hope all is well I got a ? I got to downgrade my tanks and moved some fish around can I put my boesemani rainbow with my guppies, dwarf corydoras, otocinclus in my 75 gallon tank together Thanks you

Just bite the bullet and pay for eco complete and be happy.