What would you recommend as a substrate for my first planted tank? I would like something low maintenance (if possible), suitable for plant growth and inexpensive, although I don't mind spending a bit more if it will make a significant difference.
Thanks!
Earth, small amount about an inch with gravel over it.
You are going to get a lot of advice about laterite, and flourite and so on, but the simplest way to get the most healthy plant growth with the least amount of maintenance and money is quite simply soil. You can't grow potatoes in rocks, and even in hydroponics, the water column is rife with trace minerals elements and nutrients. A lot of maintenance to balance with fish, and then there is the school of CO2, another expensive maintenance issue that can also put your fish at risk.
You would still require gravel to keep the fish out of the mud, but only an inch of it, and only an inch of soil, and lots of malaysian live bearing trumpet snails. Don't take my advice though, if you are interested, research well and properly on many websites about soil in the aquarium. Such as Diane Walstead and many others, Google will help you there.
Perhaps an example of some setups that have worked for you would help?
If you have high speed internet, you could look at the home show freshwater winner from the 2005/2006 season, as that is mine and succinctfish's and it is a 135 gallon soil tank, as is the 50 gallon tank succinctfish had in the homeshow this year too.
Sorry, do you have a link to the show?
I typically don't recommend soil for beginner planted tank owners. Plain ol' bargain basement gravel works just fine for a low to medium light tank.
Take an avocado pit and dump it in a glass of water and put it on a window sill. Pretty soon, you'll have a plantlet and you didn't even need ANY substrate to do it.
A lot of the easier plants in the aquarium trade really won't care about substrate. Light and waterchanges is enough.
As you can tell , there is a lot of debate about substrate, the best thing is to research each teaching & decide if it works with the plans & ideas you have, from your other post you indicated you want to do africans & plants, the 2 most used plants in african tanks are java fern & anubias, they do not require any special substrate , as they are not recommended to be planted below the substrate.
Here you will find a lot of info about planted tanks - http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=17493.0
Regards
50% of my plants attached to wood or rocks or other plants and they are doing fine. I do use flourite for the substrate. Some plant does required to planted in substrate, most of them don't. I agree with Jody, the best substrate would be soil just like in the nature but a lot of care and planning required.
Yes, when I planted my swords in soil! They gave me the best root system! ;)