Sand too Small

[NGerdes]

I ordered some Fourite and Sand from Big Al's. And it arrived yesterday. After looking at the sand, it is pretty small granuales (sp). The bag or website doesn't say the actual size of the sand particles. I read on a post earlier that sand that is too small has a tendancy to sufficate plants. Will this happen if I mix it with the Flourite? Should I get some new sand???

[Heady]

Seachem also sells Onyx sand, a substrate specifically intended for growing plants.

It seems to me that if sand really is bad for plants, they wouldn't have a market for Onyx sand.

I recently bought a bunch of Onyx as a substrate for my 100 gallon. It is really cool looking, kind of like volcanic ash.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Yes, Onyx sand is great, I wouldn't want anything else.

[NGerdes]

It was called marine sand, and I doubt that it was larger that 1mm. I would compare it to looking at a bag of table sugar. That's the size I'm talking about. It specifically states that it's good for freshwater aquariums....

[TwoTankAmin]

Sand works fine with plants. I would suggest you use laterite not fluorite with sand. To keep the substrate well aerated, add some Malaysian trumpet snails which burrow and do a fine job of keeping substrate healthy and non anerobic.