Will a part sand,part fluorite substrate work?

[new2tanks]

I was wondering of it would be posssible to have a nice sandy corner in my 10g aquarium?

I plan to go with a black fluorite as i will be having some plants and i thought some white sand in one corner would look gorgeous.
Would the 2 types of substrates get mixed up easily? would i have to use some sort of divider?

If anyone has a similar setup currently in thier tank and can spare a few pictures, i would be very grateful.
Thanks for all you input,
N.

[Hurley]

I have seen this done before with great results. I think you will eventually get some mixing of the two but I think it looks more natural that way. The way I have seen it done is by having a flexible divider between where the sand and fluorite go which could be removed once everything was in place. It looked really good once it was done, especially when there were rocks and plants to soften the divide between the two.

[TKOS]

The two will mix as the sand will settle out. You can always top off the tank with more sand later on if you prefer the all sand look. this will be a slwo and potentially messy process but doable.

[beblondie]

you'll need a physical divier between the two areas a thin piece of plexiglass should work-Anne

[Hurley]

I found a couple pages that have a tank that uses two substrates. They are from a plant forum but I thought they would give you some good examples and insights into the project.

Divider 1 (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/photo-album/29034-jeff-senske-dvaga-presentation.html?highlight=Divider)
Divider 2 (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/photo-album/26865-240-gallon-photo-journal-begins-56k-6.html?highlight=Divider)
Divider 3 (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/substrate/25585-sand-beach-eco-complete.html?highlight=Divider)
Divider 4 (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/general-planted-tank-discussion/23176-new-29g-setup-56k-warning.html?highlight=sand)

I hope these help!

[mooman]

I did this in my old tank, and it looked awesome. I used a few small rocks as a divider (slate should match the flouride). Mixing did occur over time. I used a film canister with a hole (covered by a piece of screen) in the bottom as a kind of siev. About once a month I would use the film canister to remove any pieces of substrate that had become mixed with the sand. Nothing you can do about the sand that migrates out of the sandbox (it sinks to the bottom however, so it really isn't a concern.

[new2tanks]

thanks for all your feedback....


beblondie, how do you affix the divider to your tank.is glue aquarium safe? or should i just remove the divider once the substrates have settled?

bunny13, he algae issue is the most scary thing that i read of in the links you posted.... i hope that wont be an issue for me.

Does anyone reccommend a particular type of sand that will be preferable for this process? can any sand do?
I was thinking of moon sand, i saw at petsmart....
Thanks...

[justintoxicated]

I'm interested in some Black Flourite, can you please post a link I have never sceen it for sale.

[new2tanks]

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=84552444178 1444&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302030109&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023693&bmUID=1144120414870&itemNo=1&In=Fish&N=2030109&Ne=2

happy to help!

[Hurley]

new2tanks - as long as you have enough plants in your tank algae shouldn't be much of a problem. I switched to eco-complete in January and I had some algae problems but as soon as I increased my plant load they outcompeted the algae for nutrients and tada!!! no more algae!! I also have ottos and and apple snails to keep the algae in check but I supplement them with veggies and pellet food because there is not a lot of algae in my tank.

[justintoxicated]

that looks like regular flourite to me :huh:

I saw an article where they put sand and flourite together and they said it worked really well.

[new2tanks]

the website lists red and black as types of fluorite....

[Blinky]

I believe Flourite comes in solid red and red mixed with black. I've never seen any other colour, but if it's out there it would look fantastic (I love the look of plants on black gravel/backgrounds).
We have tanks at work with sectioned-off areas of different substrate. You could use cyanoacrylate glue or silicone to fix a divider (glass, slate, plexiglass) in place, hopefully that would reduce the possibility of the two mixing.