Aqua Soil keeps floating above my black sand!

[snuffy]

Aqua Soil keeps floating above my black sand! :wall:

I was wondering how to stop it from moving it's way to the top. I remove as much of it with some tubing for the last 2 weekends, but soil keeps appearing.

Is it because of the Malaysian Trumpet snails digging through the substrate? Is it because of the dwarf hair grass growing? I really like my sand and want to it in my new 20 gallon tank, BUT I think the brown soil above my beautiful black sand is really ugly.

On a side note... what do you guys/gals think of the layout of this 10 gallon tank? Any suggestions? Thinking it might be a little cluttered.

Anyways please HELP ME! Thanks!

 

[fwiffo]

that tank is awesome! thats awesome! lol!

 

[mellowvision]

nice tank. the grass is sweet. the sand will always settle below the gravel, that's just gravity in action.

 

[snuffy]

Thanks for the warm response. So there isn't a different bottom soil I can switch to so this won't happen? T_T Such a pain to keep vacuuming the soil gravel out every water change =(

 

[wackydan]

I think that tank is beautiful. The substrate actually looks kinda neat... nice contrast in my opinion... I really don't think you can keep the lower layer of aqua soil separated from the sand in the long term anyway... especially with borrowing snails and eventual tank maintenance.

 

[mellowvision]

if you really want it to stay black, eco-complete is the way to go

 

[theotheragentm]

With a tank that heavily planted, I wouldn't even gravel vac during water changes, unless it's horribly unsightly.

 

[tennesseemom]

I love the soil above the sand, it looks natural.

 

[gsparsan]

I had the same problem with aqua clay which kept floating to the surface and most of it remained is suspension. But at that stage I didn't have anything else in the water except the substrate. I left the tank to cycle and eventually they absorbed water and fell to the bottom. A few remained in suspension and I netted them away. So maybe after a couple of weeks, yours will start behaving differently as well.

The setup is awesome by the way.