# Soilmaster Select issue



## Lifer374 (Dec 5, 2003)

A few weeks ago I set up a lightly planted 75 gallon low light tank for my 6" Rhombeus. Because funding was low, I ended up going with Soilmaster Select for the substrate.

I was forewarned by Dippy to set this tank up months in advance and get the plants established prior to introducing the rhom. But under the circumstances this was impossible for me to do. I understand completely where he was going with this. The gravel is so light weight that it was no problem for my fish to up root my narrow leaf chain swords and replanting the young shoots delicate and small root systems was quite the challenge.

My Rhombeus made claim to the far right side of the tank which is odd because it is also the most open, exposed area. He is still very much not yet acclimated to this new environment and every time I open the lid, he flutters in his spot. If I toss in a chunk of food, he spasms, sending the light substrate everywhere and uprooting everything. 
For this reason I have removed all the chain swords in and near his territory and relocated them to different areas of the tank. However, this is not what I wish to do permanently because my purpose for the chain swords is to carpet the entire bottom.

As of right now I'm planning on doing a layer of heavier standard aquarium gravel only in his territory over the soilmaster to keep his "episodes" from sending the soilmaster everywhere. Hopefully, the chainswords will then have a more solid foundation. 
I am wondering how this will effect gravel vacs. I'm thinking if I attempt to vac this section, the two substrates will then mix only leading to more disappointment. 
Or should I avoid vac'ing this section of the tank all together?


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## rickstsi (Apr 6, 2007)

I am going throw the same thing with my manuelli in my 125g. That was one of the reasons i couldn't get any small plants when i had my pygos in there. But from what i understand if you mix the gravel or try to put it on top, the lighter soilmaster will come up and the heavier gravel will sink to the bottom. If you do try this let me know what happens.


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## ryanimpreza (Jul 19, 2006)

I just place rocks at the base of the plant on top of the roots and the weight holds it down just fine. Once the plant develops I remove the rocks.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

great idea ryan

My rhom let my plants grow in with no bad issues










I guess I got a well behaved rhom? He kicks around some gravel sometimes, but the key is to plant very dense from the beginning, or wait until your tank is established before introducing your fish


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## Lifer374 (Dec 5, 2003)

Well, the night after I posted this thread I discovered a crack in my tanks pine stand running horizontally along the face. Just underneath where the tank sits. Tank was perfectly level, don't know what happened. 
Stand was only three weeks old. I called the store and they hooked me up pretty good. Drained the tank down, took the stand back to them and recieved credit toward a oak stand/canopy setup at a dicounted price.

Went ahead and did a thick layer of standard black gravel over top of the soilmaster while the tank was drained down. I ended up pretty much pushing away most of the soilmaster from that area, only leaving about .5" that went underneath the gravel.

So far so good. The standard gravel (though not the same color as the soilmaster at all) is doing exactly what I wanted it to do. I'm running my powerhead again, which was a problem with the soilmaster at the opposite side of the tank of the PH. No issues anymore with gravel being moved around by current or by the piranha.

We'll see over the long run what happens. As of right now, I'm going to avoid vac'ing this area to keep from mixing gravels. I'm sure that this will be inevitable though. I've decided what I'm going to do if I have issues with them mixing, is like in this months TFH, do a seperation of the two gravels with cardboard and then keep them totally seperated with rocks after removing the cardboard, if that makes sense...


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