Sand Substrate

[AnotherWoogie]

Right now, I have pool sand set up in my 16 gal and have a banana plant and water sprite. The water sprite isn't doing so well and I really need some bigger and better background plants. What can I get that will do well with this substrate and low-medium lighting. I can do CO2, but it might be awhile 'cause I'm new to the live plant thing.


Any suggestions would be great, thank you :)

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Sand Substrate

Having used sand myself in a planted tank I am going to say that it is a poor choice.

The stuff compacts and build anerobic gas pockets which you need to manually stir up cause even MTS snails won't cut it. Stirring the substrate doesn't allow plants to root properly and haveing the sand will force most plants to try and adapt which will end up with the plants dieing or start sending out side roots.

What do you consider to be low/med lighting? How long are you keeping them on for?

Honestly if your water sprite is dieing then you need to change it up some cause those are really easy plants which usually take over your tank.

[AnotherWoogie]

Re: Sand Substrate

How hard do you think it would be to pull everything out of my tank and layer black soilmaster under the sand?

It won't be able to be for a couple of weeks until I can go home and get the soilmaster, but I should probably start planning now for what I'm going to do. Should I just drain all the water into buckets and throw the fish in one of the buckets with the water, then take all the sand out and add soilmaster with the sand on top.

What's the easiest way to do this with minimal stress on my fishies?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Sand Substrate

Move the fish to a bucket and run the filter in it.

With the sand thing.....probably not gonna work since the sand will eventually make its way to the bottom.

[AnotherWoogie]

Re: Sand Substrate

I've done the layering with sand in a previous tank and it doesn't move down as much as you think it would.

[Tiapan]

Re: Sand Substrate

if you need something that does well in sand, vals are about the only real option i can think of, they do real well in the sand in my tang tank currently, some melt but the others are propigating just fine. also plants that dont need to root, like hornwort, or anachris, or najas grass, or even anubias or java fern. ala do well in low to med light and dont usually care what substrate you use. and EK if you look at a lot fo the entries on aquaticplantcentral for the competitions last year a lot of them used sand. im just sayins is all, but it is not my choice for a dedicated planted tank, i like a soil/gravel mix myself.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Sand Substrate

Tiapan.............if you knew how the sand was put there and how long those tanks are really kept the way they are then you would know that it does not apply to anything in this thread.

The tank is sectioned to where the sand will be and where the plant substrate will be.....sand usually being in front or through the middle so they place boards in the tank and then lay the substrate which keeps them that way till all the plant substrate is layed.....when that is done then the boards are removed which gives you the clean separate substrates....not layered on top of each other but next to each other.

Also most of those tanks are torn down after their purpose.....Next time I go to Mike's I'll drop of a few Amano catalogs and Aquajournals.



Anotherwoogie....if you have layered sand and gravel before then I guess you knew the answer before you asked it. I personally have experienced different sized substrate with the finer being on top work it's way to the bottom....but I am sure you don't plan on ever digging into the substrate or have fish that come near the ground so that wouldn't be a problem then.

[AnotherWoogie]

Re: Sand Substrate

I have loaches that dig a little big and I've never had too much of a problem. The soilmaster layer will probably be thin with the sand on top because honestly, I love the sand look. At the same time, the soilmaster I'm getting is black, so even if it does mix, I'll probably like that look as well.

But thanks for the help :)

[Mzungu]

Re: Sand Substrate

About the sand and soil mixing - eventually they will. But you're right, if they're both black and you don't mind, then it's all good! Remember we're talking long term here... it will probably take quite a while for them to mix.

I have a planted tank with sand, actually, I have 2, come to think of it. My experiences are like Tiapan's - I've had a lot of success with ferns and anubias and moss, because they're not actually 'planted.'  :)  But so far, for over a year, I've had crypts in there and they're doing really well. Good for lower light, too. In the other tank, which was just re-done, I have many different kinds of echinodorus (big grassy kind, not the sword-types) and dwarf sagittaria. They're both doing very well and sending out runners like crazy.

I have no scientific data to back this up, but in my head the plants that grow quickly and send out lots of runners can do well in sand.  :)

[rrocket2002]

Re: Sand Substrate

I've had Vals, Swords, Java Fern, Banana plants? and a few others do ok in Pool Filter Sand.  

Raul

[AnotherWoogie]

Re: Sand Substrate

Thanks so much, guys! I'm really hoping to get some decent plants in there without having to redo the whole tank.

Again, THANK YOU!!!