I posted here a while about adding plants to a fish-only tank, I got
some good advice on what to do, but now I need more specific help.

For my 20 Gallon long (12 inches high) tank, I decided to go with a 55
W compact fluorescent light and no CO2 (for now), but I'm confused
about gravel/substrate. I have 1.5 inches of mixed size gravel (1-4mm
dia. aprox.) that used to be part of a UGF system but now sits on the
tank bottom. Now what do I do? I've decided I'm going to need to add
some sort of substrate (fluorite, etc.) but how?

Do I layer it under the gravel, or mix it up? As my tank is only 12
inches high (20 gallon long) will I have to remove some so I can fit
the substrate? I don't think I can fit more than 2 inches of gravel
in my tank.

Also, does any of this matter if I just keep the plants in the pot,
and cover it with gravel?

Ken

I can't speak to your planted pot suggestion, but I can tell you my
experience with replacing gravel.

My tank had a 1.5" layer of blue aquarium gravel. I really didn't like it. I
used a slotted plastic spatula and a net. I would remove about one pound US
each day until it was gone, gone, gone. I mean hunting down every little
blue speck that somehow ended up in a corner of the tank. Slow was good
because this gravel formed part of the biological filter.

That was the easy part.

Now I added Fluorite. It is really dusty stuff. I took a three cup seine,
sifter, I don't know what to call it. It is a kitchen device to drain small
amounts of pasta or stuff. It is a fine wire mesh. I would fill the seine
with about two cups of fluorite and rinse it under the kitchen faucet until
it ran clear. I would then take it to the aquarium and place it on the
bottom of the tank. No matter how much I rinsed, it wasn't enough. The water
was cloudy. I would continue adding Fluorite to the tank until the dust
reached the point that I couldn't stand it any more. Then, I stopped and
waited until the next day and started again.

I should mention that this was a full box of water with fish in it. It took
several days to add 14kg of Fluorite to my 29G tank. But it is done. I kept
the addition of fluorite to the level I could stand. The fish freaked out a
bit, but there was no apparent long term damage.

Be patient, take it slow, and you will do fine.

chet




"Ken" wrote in message
om...
I posted here a while about adding plants to a fish-only tank, I got
some good advice on what to do, but now I need more specific help.

For my 20 Gallon long (12 inches high) tank, I decided to go with a 55
W compact fluorescent light and no CO2 (for now), but I'm confused
about gravel/substrate. I have 1.5 inches of mixed size gravel (1-4mm
dia. aprox.) that used to be part of a UGF system but now sits on the
tank bottom. Now what do I do? I've decided I'm going to need to add
some sort of substrate (fluorite, etc.) but how?

Do I layer it under the gravel, or mix it up? As my tank is only 12
inches high (20 gallon long) will I have to remove some so I can fit
the substrate? I don't think I can fit more than 2 inches of gravel
in my tank.

Also, does any of this matter if I just keep the plants in the pot,
and cover it with gravel?

Ken