I got black sand in all of my smaller tanks. I have chain sword or dwarf sagittaria in my 6 gal. tank and 10 gal. both tanks have a 15 watt bulb in it and they are both doing well with no fertilizer. My 10 gal tank has a aqua-glo bulb in it and my lights are all on a timer for 9 hrs a day. But Root tabs might make them grow better. Be careful as excell might kill your dwarf shrimps as I know of someone that lost 1/2 his shrimps because of Excel.
2.5 gal tank question
- Thread starter tyr
- Start date
Sounguru
Guru at being an expert
And where does that info come from?
All of my tanks with live plants have sand or a sand based mix. I have excellent plant growth and it looks a snot lot better than gravel.
Well if it works for you, go for it. I'm just saying gravel typically allows for better airflow and sand can sometimes not allow any airflow.
Sounguru
Guru at being an expert
But to base a statement that plants grow better in gravel because of that theory is wrong. Look at a lake, river, or stream. Most of your plant life is on the muddy sections not the gravelly sections of those bodies of water. Most of the worlds top planted tanks use a fine substrate finer than any gravel. Heck Flourite and Eco complete are both finer than gravel and over time break down some so that they are even finer. If I would you I would do more research before jumping to conclusions.
And one more question is if gravel is so much better then how come so many people are moving over to sand for planted tanks?
Growing in the wild is different than growing in a controlled aquarium. The plants grow in the mud because there are more nutrients and it the plants to become rooted very well. Some have to be rooted well to prevent from being uprooted but in a tank with little or no water flow what's the point? As for the nutrients, you could just use fert. Lots of people use sand because it looks better and can help plants root better but just because sand is on the top doesn't mean it's all sand. Many planted tanks will have layers of gravel underneath a top layer (sand) so it will look better. I'm not saying large grain gravel is best, that's too large, but sand is too small. Small grained gravel is the best in my opinion. Using sand for better rooting is good but you have to aerate it to keep from anaerobic bacteria from forming which defeats the purpose. Many people use sand because it LOOKS better.
Sounguru
Guru at being an expert
Wow that is real news to me in 32 years of keeping fish I have tried it all and sand still makes the best medium over anything else except certain special mixes and believe me I have tried and if you have the correct balance of critters stirring the soil is also a mute point. If you put a layer of sand over a layer of gravel before long that gravel becomes your top layer because the finer grains of sand move downward thus killing the purpose you seem to think the gravel serves.. I have tanks that are in the 6 year range that I have never stirred with strong healthy plant growth. I have tanks that have had gravel in them with good plant growth and I had more pockets of trapped gas under the roots of the gravel by a long shot when I went to move the plants than I have ever had in sand. The mulm still builds in the gravel under the plant roots where you don't siphon where in a sand bed it sits on top Thur in gravel you still have and in my experience more so pockets of gas build up..
To each his own but back to the original OPs post.
Sounguru
Guru at being an expert
Sounds good and will look good too.
This might be some help if you want to keep it on the cheap and add ferts to the roots. DIY ROOT TABS
This might be some help if you want to keep it on the cheap and add ferts to the roots. DIY ROOT TABS
