Can I plant directly into ADA sand?

[Emerica88]

Is it ok to only use sand as a substrate or would I also need to use soil under the sand?

[BoredAgain]

Is it ok to only use sand as a substrate or would I also need to use soil under the sand?
I only use sand.

[Emerica88]

How deep is your substrate and what kind of plants do you have?

[Hurley]

It should be fine. But you might not have alot of nutrients in the sand so depending on your plants and lighting you might need to add fertilizers.

[jmhart]

In my opinion, it's unfortunate that you purchased powersand. If anything, it's a secondary addition. I would have just gotten Aquasoil by itself. Since you already have it, I would use it in addition to aquasoil.

Powersand doesn't contain many nutrients, so while you can plant directly into it, you'll still have to dose into the water column.

[Mgamer20o0]

powersand is for the bottom so you dont have to buy as much ada soil most people add 1 inch or less of it then put the ada soil on top.

[plantbrain]

After running several tanks with and without the Power sand + ADA aqua soil, I just use the Aqua soil alone now. I've never been able to tell any significant differences with/without the Power sand. The ADA aqua soil seems to be the main part of the ADA routine that helps the plants do well. The rest of the soil products seem to be add ons or hold overs.

The liquid ferts are nothing more than typical DIY dry ferts + water anyone can buy for 25$ for 50lbs..........that could make a 1000 gallon vat, vs 500 mls for about the same cost.

Tanks are very nice, not too over priced either.
Glassware, filters, stands etc, over priced but still nice.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Emerica88]

In my opinion, it's unfortunate that you purchased powersand. If anything, it's a secondary addition. I would have just gotten Aquasoil by itself. Since you already have it, I would use it in addition to aquasoil.

Powersand doesn't contain many nutrients, so while you can plant directly into it, you'll still have to dose into the water column.
I haven't purchased anything yet I'm just doing some research first. What is a good light colored semi fine substrate that would work for a lightly planted tank?

[Emerica88]

Something like this

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb137/AZ9111/Lightsubstrate.jpg

[jmhart]

The tank you are looking at there isn't using 100% powersand. In fact, I doubt it uses powersand at all. You can't tell unless you know, but where you see plants, they are using aquasoil, and then they have a barrier between the aquasoil and sand. The substrates don't mix, and since the sand lacks nutrients(plus the barrier) the plants stay out of it.

Let me see if I can find a demonstration.

[plantbrain]

Something like this

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb137/AZ9111/Lightsubstrate.jpg

As Jeffery mentioned above.

You can produce that tank rather straight forwardly.

Plain white/tan sand mostly.
Since the main plants are the Riccia/moss on the bottom=> no roots, does not matter there.

The wood and java fern=> no need for sediment either.

So the only place you'd need ADA aqua soil: the back rear where the hair grass is growing tall.

You can even place the ADA AS into a shallow tray/pot etc and then hide with some Java fern/moss etc and then use sand everywhere else.

It's a fairly easy scape that looks nice.
Just dial in the CO2 really well, you will need to dose routinely since most of those plants are water column only for nutrients.
50-70% weekly water changes, likely 2-3x a week for the first 1-2 months.

You do not see many fish in there either..........
That's pretty much what you will expect. You'll need to prune somewhat routines to keep things tidy.

Regards,
Tom Barr