I was contemplating this for a long while. The thing is that I wanted to cover my tank with a nice layer of grass. It would give a nice greenish feel to complete the barrel desert look. The think is that the patch of grass which I bought for $8 had hardly grown nor spread across my tank.
After some researching, I came to realise that this had to do with my gravel. The brownish gravel though gives a good appearance, is large and light. This is good if you have one of those under soil filter system. Cos it allows the dirt and particles to slip between to the bottom.
You might thought that this would have been good for the plants to set their roots. Unfortunately this is not. Plants love security. They need a firm, tight base to allow them to root up properly. Loose gravel would simply be impossible for the to grow and spread.
Thus I bought a bag of dark planting soil. well, its more than dark, its black to be precise.
I decided to leave the original gravel and layer this new set above it. Its a risk I took and it turn out to give a nice arty effect.
On top of it I planted new species of grass. This monster patch is well know to spread well and I could only hope to see my tank cover with them in a couple of months.
As you can see, my cory**** is enjoying the presence of new grass.
At the moment, the water is quite murky with all that movement. Once it settles and after a few more water change, I would post the revamp look.
Oh and we found some new baby prawnies. This is like the 2nd time we found them. I hope they live till adult.
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