# Black Diamond Blasting Sand



## Vohlk (Apr 8, 2016)

A good way would be to use black diamond blasting sand to cap a layer of organic potting soil for most of those plants. Just search around for dirted tanks around on the forums there are some really good journals/tutorials.


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## rhiro (Sep 21, 2012)

In the Journal forum see the 125g Dutch by burr740. He provides all the details on his set up and fert dosing.


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## Vinster8108 (Sep 1, 2016)

You're plants are going to need some form of nutrients to do well. I use BDBS, DIY root tabs and EI dry ferts with good results. 
I would say, for you plant list, you will need to supply your plants with nutrients. You could go low tech and see what you could get away with. I'm not sure how well your plants will do, but your water and fish waste may be enough to grow slow growing plants like anubias.


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## micahm2002 (Aug 10, 2017)

rhiro said:


> In the Journal forum see the 125g Dutch by burr740. He provides all the details on his set up and fert dosing.


Thank you checked out his current 120 and old 75, I think I'll try to do a setup like his but try LED flood lights.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

BDSD works perfectly by itself (and basic fertilizers in the water column). Personally, not a fan of root tabs. Pain to clean up, and I saw no difference between my crypts that had them and the ones that didn't.

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## goodbytes (Aug 18, 2014)

natemcnutty said:


> BDSD works perfectly by itself (and basic fertilizers in the water column). Personally, not a fan of root tabs. Pain to clean up, and I saw no difference between my crypts that had them and the ones that didn't.


This ^
Grows plants just fine, looks pretty slick too with a black background. I take the opposite position and I use root tabs exclusively--I use root-feeders only for this though.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

goodbytes said:


> This ^
> Grows plants just fine, looks pretty slick too with a black background. I take the opposite position and I use root tabs exclusively--I use root-feeders only for this though.


Not my thought (originally read it from Tom Barr), but keep in mind that substrates breathe a fair amount leaching those fetilizers into the water column. I bet the finer the sand, the less true that is, but my experience was using them for some crypts but not others in a tank with column dosing and saw no benefit to the ones with the tabs.

Again, not very scientific, but I hated cleaning up those little O+ balls [emoji14]

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