New to plants

I am going to buy some plants for my aquarium just wondering what thickness of gravel do I need and does any one use Laterite.

hello this is Cees and i will try to answer your questions.The best thickness of gravel varies from 3cm at the front of your aquarium, and 6 a 7 cm at the back of your aquarium because you put small plants at the front and tall ones at the back.Never put large plants at the front,it will blur the vision,also dont put small plants too far apart from each other but plant them in groups.You must have two layers of gravel/sand.The bottom layer is sand mixed with ordinary clay, unfertilised of course,from about 1,5cm.On top of that you bring on your gravel.when you fill your aquarium up with water, put a binbag over the gravel.On that you put a deep dinnerpate,and pour the water in it,now the water cant whirl the gravel up.Now take the plants out of the pots with glasswool and try not to break the roots( in holland we use a coarse comb under luke-warm running water).Take the lead strip off from leaded bunches because normaly they start to rot in it.Some plants settle in straight away but some plants need 3 weeks time before you see some growth,they work first on their rootsystem before they produce leaves.Some plants need a lot of light,some dont.Read about it before you buy.There is no need for aquatic plant fertiliser in the coming months, there is plenty in the clay.Plants need 14 to 16 hours light to grow, dont do more,you only see algae grow fast.This is a very brief information,dont be afraid to ask more questions,yours,Cees.

I have used laterite in the past but tbh I can't say I saw much difference over ordinary gravel. The smaller the gravel the better really that you use, the larger pea sized gravel is not great for holding more delicate plants anchored. Two or Three inches would be best depth and as suckers says you can have it lower at the front than the back, this can give the tank the appearance of more depth when its planted up.

My low light tanks get no more than 10 hours per day of light, I would also recommend you fertilise any plants from the start. Tropica Plant Nutrition+ would fit the bill here at the recommended dosage for your tank size, its an all in one fertiliser, thats all you would need for any tank using lighting under 1.5WPG, keep it simple;)