Help needed with substrate ideas

[sunny]

Hi guys !
How r u doing ?

I'm setting up a aquascape(planted) and I need a black top layer substrate for aesthetic.. I have soilrite-vermicompost-laterite-clay as bottom layers.. Don't have money to buy ADA stuff.. Plz prescribe a cheaper alternative..

[SCORPIO]

Brought decorative black sand.

[sunny]

Sand as top layer ? Wud it b good for plantd tanks ?

[SCORPIO]

Sand as top layer ? Wud it b good for plantd tanks ?

Why not? Combination of vermicompost/latarite/soilrite need to cover with a gravel top layer.

[sushant]

last day i was at a railway crossing and something caught my attention as a probable end of search for a cheap black substrate. there were wagons loaded with tons of coal in varying sizes(some of them would have been an excellent scaping material) and since coal is thought to be aquarium safe, probably its the answer........

[sunny]

Great ! Coal dust ! It cud be used ...


@scorpio sir yes i need gravel but black colored.. Any ideas ?

[Romi]

My two cents!

Sushant, there are problems with cation absorption or someting similar if you use 'coal gravel' .... if you google it you will see what i mean. Big chunks of coal are ok, as rocks or something, but so many small pieces as are in 'gravel' or 'sand' would create terrific cation interface which might have all manner of reactions with other stuff in the tank, who knows, even with our friend's DIY fertz. coal is mostly carbon, i think, and we know what absorption power carbon has.

Another issue i know about is that the crushed coal would not be naturally eroded (water erosion wears edges out in gravel and this prevents plant roots from sustaining damage from sharp ends otherwise). It is going to coal that was struck and broken, that means fresh sharp surfaces on each grain. I will be glad if it works, black would contrast so well with plants and fish, but i suspect there are going to be glitches, guys!

Black is also a magnet for debris, which is what organic matter in aquarium (from fish waste) becomes with passage of time. Overall, black is best left for massively experienced or massively rich people, since the commercial tried-and-tested brands are expensive indeed. if some natural source of naturally occuring black gravel was known in India, i am sure it would be available in our regular shops.

[SCORPIO]

I saw black gravel at Aquarium Home, Laxmi Nagar and Gaurav Shukla's shop.

[sushant]

My two cents!

Sushant, there are problems with cation absorption or someting similar if you use 'coal gravel' .... if you google it you will see what i mean. Big chunks of coal are ok, as rocks or something, but so many small pieces as are in 'gravel' or 'sand' would create terrific cation interface which might have all manner of reactions with other stuff in the tank, who knows, even with our friend's DIY fertz. coal is mostly carbon, i think, and we know what absorption power carbon has.

Another issue i know about is that the crushed coal would not be naturally eroded (water erosion wears edges out in gravel and this prevents plant roots from sustaining damage from sharp ends otherwise). It is going to coal that was struck and broken, that means fresh sharp surfaces on each grain. I will be glad if it works, black would contrast so well with plants and fish, but i suspect there are going to be glitches, guys!

Black is also a magnet for debris, which is what organic matter in aquarium (from fish waste) becomes with passage of time. Overall, black is best left for massively experienced or massively rich people, since the commercial tried-and-tested brands are expensive indeed. if some natural source of naturally occuring black gravel was known in India, i am sure it would be available in our regular shops.

Romi as far as I know coal or any form of pure carbon is almost inert unless activated using thermal/hydrothermal process, and that too have a very limited shelf life. This is a reason people are recommended to replace activated charcoal in a short span of 1-3 months.

More ever eeachem black too have a very sharp nd hard structure but still is a good planting substrate and the shape of coal fragments won't be much different from it.

I may be wrong but someone should sart a pilot project to know it exact potential as a substrate.

[Romi]

Sushant@

Let us see what happens then. I will hope for the best

Coal is mentioned in old time Aquarium books, in have one from 1935 with me that mentions coal 'rocks', but no contemporary aquascape uses them that has received attention. if it works out, it will be a very cheap and beautiful addition to the tank, i think.