I heartily agree with the recommendations regarding light. However I have
had good luck with using soil in my tanks. I start with plain cat litter on
the bottom. Then I sprinkle some fertilizer over the litter. Then a layer
of potting soil. These 2 layers take up about 1" in a 5 gallon and about 2"
in a 15 gh. Realizing that a disturbance to the gravel may cloud the tank,
over the 2 previous layers I put about a .5" of fairly fine sand. I then
followed with standard aquarium gravel. After all this I then planted and
then filled with water. The tank cleared up in less than a day.



"Jody" wrote in message
. ..
It is very hard to keep small tanks in balance due to the small margin for
error. Keep it simple and go for slow-growing plants. Fast-growers with
sufficient light and CO2 will fill up a 10g in no time - you would have to
prune very often which can get frustrating after you get over the feeling
of
triumph after the first one or two prunings. Be careful with nutrients
because, again, there is a very small margin for error with only 10g of
water plus light.

Regarding the soil substrate: I recently spent about two months trying to
get a soil substrate to work in a 29g, and I wouldn't recommend it to
anyone
now. I tried two different products that are meant for use in ponds with
plants. One was a peat/sand mix, and the other was a clay/sand mix. The
peat/sand mix was too light and would cloud the water for hours after the
tiniest disturbance. The clay/sand mix cloud easily as well, and also
settle and stick to everything - plants, rocks, fixtures, glass,
everything.

I finally drained the entire tank, left about an inch of the clay/sand
mix,
and put on a couple of inches of Carib-Sea's new Eco Complete Planted
Aquarium substrate. This seems to be a winner so far. I especially like
the dark color. You can easily mix black gravel with it like I did to
save
a little money. That my two cents.

Jody

"JuanMa" wrote in message
...
Greetings.

My LFS told me that to have a planted tank I need to have the bottom of
the
tank with potting soil and gravel on top. If so, how many pounds of
soil
do
I need to make it at least 1 inch deep of soil and how many pounds of
gravel
would I need to make 1 inch deep of gravel? Or should I use more/less?
Should I use sand(non argonite)instead of the gravel?

The tank will have two 36W PC lights, maybe a power head and a HOB
filter.

Where can I find a list of livebearers online that are compatible with
other
livebearers and that won't grow too large?

Thank You.

--
Take Care.

JuanMa


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