Newbie...substate...

[Woozledad]

I am planning to add plants to my 29g setup...I'm thinking that to be successful I will need to do something with my substrate...right now it is just plain epoxy coated gravel...I'm thinking of changing it to a mixture of flourite and course sand....sand-flourite-sand...

First, will this do well as a planted substrate???

Second, since my tank is set up and cycling, fishy, how is the best way to go about the change??? I was thinking of draining the water into buckets, putting the fish into the buckets and then proceed to change out the gravel, then slowly add the water and fish back into the tank....I have an airstone I can put in the bucket with the fish....

I it would be better to make the change sooner rather than later considering it is a new setup....

Any ideas?? I should be able to buy everything locally....

Michael

[superjohnny]

I used 2 parts Red Flourite 3 parts small river gravel for my newly planted tank and it took almost a week before the water settled. I thought I did a pretty good job cleaning the rock first to :rolleyes:

[Slappy*McFish]

quote>right now it is just plain epoxy coated gravel...I'm thinking of changing it to a mixture of flourite and course sand....sand-flourite-sand...First, will this do well as a planted substrate???

yes...it should do very well.


quote>Second, since my tank is set up and cycling, fishy, how is the best way to go about the change??? I was thinking of draining the water into buckets, putting the fish into the buckets and then proceed to change out the gravel, then slowly add the water and fish back into the tank....I have an airstone I can put in the bucket with the fish....

This way should be fine...better to do it now than later.
You have the right idea.

[Woozledad]

OK, have the substrate changed....I went with about 1/2 inch of sand....1/2 - 1 1/2 inches of flourite, 1/2 in front and 1 1/2 in back....then about 3/4 inch of sand on top....

I bought medium construction sand, $2.97 for 50lb bag...I then used a strainer from walmart to strain out the fine sand grains leaving me with about 20-30lbs of large particle sand....I strained it while washing it, cup at a time...yes, very time consuming, LOL...but I think it came out really well...I also lightly washed the flourite, just to remove the dust....

I laid down the layers and then carefully added the water. I placed a piece of card board with a plate on top in the aquarium to keep from stirring up the sand....it is slightly cloudy, but not bad at all....

http://members.cox.net/allthrtl/pictures/tank.jpg

This picture was taken about 8 hours after adding the water...very clear I think....

Hopefully I can get it planted in the next couple of weeks...still need to upgrade light a bit and get the DIY CO2 going...eventually I will probably go with the compressed set up...price is the main concern at this point....

Thanks for the advice....

[Heady]

Is there any reason not to use just sand in a planted tank? Up until now I thought gravel or Flurorite was best, but lately I've been thinking... why not sand?

I like how sand looks, and it would be nice for cories and loaches... Does anyone here have an all-sand planted tank?

[Dabbler II]

Here check out my web site I have some pictures of my all sand planted tank. It is only a few months old and still a work in progress

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by Heady
Is there any reason not to use just sand in a planted tank? Up until now I thought gravel or Flurorite was best, but lately I've been thinking... why not sand? I'm using 100% Onyx Sand. It is really more like a fine gravel (larger grain than sand).. Using just sand could be a problem with "compaction" which causes dead spots, from lack of oxygen. Flourite and Onyx have essential nutrients in it that the plants need. :)