Sand Substrate
- Thread starter uneekfish
- Start date
I do... It is extremely fine sand that I dug up from a beach. Many people on here don't recommend sand for plants, but mine grow excellent in it (I mixed a little peat in with it, that helps). The only downside, is it is hard to keep plants planted - they have a tendency to uproot, untill they get growing good and have sufficient roots to keep them down. Cories certainly don't help that fact.
Naturally I'm going to recommend some planted tank substrate like eco-complete, onyx sand/gravel, flourite, etc. Those are the best commercially made substrates for planted applications. I have flourite in my 20 g and those plants are all quite happy.
However, if you have plants that aren't heavy root feeders, any substrate will due so long as there is enough to keep them put and it's not too fine so as not to allow circulation.
Right now in a five gallon betta tank I'm using this medium grade Quikrete sand that I bought at Lowe's for 5 dollars a pound. It doesn't compact.
If you do use sand, just remember to churn your sand bed when you water changes. That way there's always circulation and you also rid the tank of gross little nasties.
However, if you have plants that aren't heavy root feeders, any substrate will due so long as there is enough to keep them put and it's not too fine so as not to allow circulation.
Right now in a five gallon betta tank I'm using this medium grade Quikrete sand that I bought at Lowe's for 5 dollars a pound. It doesn't compact.
If you do use sand, just remember to churn your sand bed when you water changes. That way there's always circulation and you also rid the tank of gross little nasties.
In the year and a half I've been using sand, I've never done this; no problems whatsoever. Look at it this way, no one goes around to all the lakes, ponds and brooks and stirrs the sand, and they seem to work ok. Mind you, my tank is heavily planted.
Then again, myabe my cories are doing that job for me?
Then again, myabe my cories are doing that job for me?
echo's losing his mind... the sand at lowe's was 5 dollars for 50 pounds.
don't pay five dollars a pound for anything that you're going to be putting into your aquarium as substrate or decoration. as far as fish go, well that's a horse of a different color. =)
the sand we picked is some kind of medium mason sand... we liked the grain size of it, play sand seemed a little too fine.
and bigred... sure, nobody needs to manually stir up the bottom in any outdoor body of water, but streambeds are getting stirred up naturally by water currents, lakes and ponds by human swimmers and a lot of the animals that make their home in or near the water.
also, the hugeness of such water bodies would allow one to have much more leeway in regard to little nasties and anaerobic bacteria. an inconsequential amount of such things in a pond can be an excessively lethal amount in a home aquarium.
i don't think it's worth too much worry (certainly not worth uprooting your plants), but if you have an unplanted area in the tank, surely it can't hurt to give it a little stirry-stir. although you're probably correct in assuming that your cute little mustached renegades are taking care of that for you. *SUPERSMIL
don't pay five dollars a pound for anything that you're going to be putting into your aquarium as substrate or decoration. as far as fish go, well that's a horse of a different color. =)
the sand we picked is some kind of medium mason sand... we liked the grain size of it, play sand seemed a little too fine.
and bigred... sure, nobody needs to manually stir up the bottom in any outdoor body of water, but streambeds are getting stirred up naturally by water currents, lakes and ponds by human swimmers and a lot of the animals that make their home in or near the water.
also, the hugeness of such water bodies would allow one to have much more leeway in regard to little nasties and anaerobic bacteria. an inconsequential amount of such things in a pond can be an excessively lethal amount in a home aquarium.
i don't think it's worth too much worry (certainly not worth uprooting your plants), but if you have an unplanted area in the tank, surely it can't hurt to give it a little stirry-stir. although you're probably correct in assuming that your cute little mustached renegades are taking care of that for you. *SUPERSMIL