# Adding more substrate to established tank



## WallEyes (Oct 13, 2013)

Hello!

Been a while since I've added anything or done extra work (other than standard maintenance) on my planted tank. I was wondering if it would be alright to add Eco-Complete Plant Substrate from Drs Foster and Smith to my established planted tank. Currently I only have sand with root tabs. Yeah not the best substrate, but I really want to add some more plant life to the tank I think I need to give things a little boost. 

Everything thing is growing very well as of now, so what I have "seems" to be doing alright. If it's a good idea to add this substrate to my my tank, any suggestions as to how to do it would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks!


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## gmh (Jul 16, 2014)

Problem is, the Eco will gradually mix with the underlying sand and may not be aesthetically pleasing. I think just adding more sand of the same type would be easier.


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## WallEyes (Oct 13, 2013)

I think I would mix it up when I add it to the tank, I don't think it would look too strange, but I suppose it would be worth sampling first! My concern would shocking the system


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## gmh (Jul 16, 2014)

Eco is easy to use since it does not have to be rinsed first, but it will still cloud the water some if you are just dropping handfuls of it in. Or are you planning to take out all the plants, add new substrate and then replant?


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## WallEyes (Oct 13, 2013)

I think I would probably remove all the plants, trim them up, add the substrate, re-scape the tank a bit, and then re-plant


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

Mixing or not is a personal preference thing. If you find the look to be okay, go for it but be careful and do a small amount at a time until you see how your water reacts? 
For adding to my sand, I had no problems with the looks as I find the river bottoms are always a mix. 
To get the new stuff down with the least silt floating around, I used a cutoff soda bottle. Cutting the bottom out, I stopped the top with a thumb, filled the bottle and then went to the tank. It took multiple trips but got the job done with the fish being okay. Filters off first leaves less current to carry mud around? 
Once at the tank, I let the bottle slowly fill with water to avoid a rush which caused mud, moved the bottle down and pressed thumb and top down as far as possible before letting the top open. If you have the top pretty well buried and go slowly, you can get it done with only a small mess floating around. When the water got too muddy, I waited a day or so before adding more.


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## WallEyes (Oct 13, 2013)

PlantedRich Thanks for the advice! That sounds simple enough.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

Good luck! It is always touch and go. We want to hurry to get it done but then if we go too fast, it gets the mud stirred around. 
My tank wound up being a mix of small brown gravel, sand and Fluorite both red and black. More by default than by plan as I got something. But that is close to what I see in nature. Mother nature doesn't do neat! 

This is a spot where my African cichlids cleared a spot of the larger stuff so they could find the eggs better. If I leave a clear spot open, it helps to avoid them digging the plants out as they are not wanting to do any more work than needed. They come and clear this site and then go on.


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## lochaber (Jan 23, 2012)

Sorta a variant of what PlantedRich did, is you get a soda/water bottle (intact), funnel a bunch of substrate into it, fill it with water, put it in the tank and invert it. The substrate will tumble out, 'raining' over the bottom of the tank, and all the cloudiness will remain in the bottle. When you are done, turn the bottle right-side up, take it out, and dump the cloudy water in the sink or on a planter or something. 

This works best with larger-grained substrate, like gravel, flourite, etc. If you are using sand, you probably want something with a slightly smaller hole.

I've used this to add more substrate to areas of an established tank, and was pretty happy with how it worked out.


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