What is the best kind of substrate that is also more on the cheap side for growing dwarf hairgrass and baby dwarf tears?

Mineralized top soil can be cheap if you do it yourself and cap it with sand or fine gravel. Worm castings work if you don't want to mineralize, the worms have mineralized the soil for you. The substrate question is heavy on opinions and there is something for every budget. The cheaper stuff just requires more work on your part.

I use 1" canadian sphagum peat moss, 1" play sand, and 1" pc select (or aquarium gravel).

The peat moss is the 1'x1'x3' plastic cubes from building supply places for about $10.

play sand is just the premium play sand for sand boxes. 50 pound bags are like $3 or so.

Pc select is on this site: Pro's Choice Products

It is used in baseball infields and is a baked clay. I contacted them and they put me in touch with a local distributor. That distributor ordered a pallet and charged my $9 for 50 pound bags.



my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Pool filter sand is relatively cheap,, 50 lbs at 10.00... Great for plants and will not pack down like play sand...
My latest experiment is a product called Safe-T-Sorb. It's a clay based product used to soak up spills in automotive garages.. I've had a tank with it (155G) going for over 2 months and my plants like that too!... (Avail at Tractor Supply)... 40 lbs at $5.00.

I'm really curious why anyone would purchase "aquarium" gravel...LOL.. Bill in Va.

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12 Tanks, 900 gallons. Discus/Angels/Malawi/Lake Victorias. Just added a 135 & 2 - 29's..

i use peat moss, sand and gravel in 2 of my tanks, pretty cheap and works good no regrets on using it plus plants look really good

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What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?