is this idiotic?

Jadis

Jadis

AC Members
Jul 24, 2005
177
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0
portland, OR
i hate hate hate the look of the flourite in my 10gallon tank.

i really want to switch to sand, and this weekend i was going to rip it all out and replace it with peat and sand.

but then i got to thinking. `couldnt i just take out like half of the flourite and just add sand on top?

could there be a problem with this im not thinking of?
 
its going to cause a mess and be time consuming, but it shouldnt be too bad.

becareful ripping out gravel as beneficial bacteria live in it, you could cause an ammonia spike.
 
i dont mind messes, its only a 10 gallon.

but i realized the sand wil end up mixing with the flourite (which is flourite red btw) so im probably better off just taking it all out like planned.
 
yes, the flourite has larger particles than sand, and the sand will fall down between it.
 
When you say "sand" do you really mean sand or smaller gravel?? If you want plants (IMO) sand is too fine.

Just put some sand/gravel over the flourite.
 
im going to lay a layer of peat under the sand.
the flourite red would mix with the sand making a substrate much uglier than just flourite red.


my 10 gallon is my "experiment tank" i do everything in there before i do it in any of the larger tanks. and since my 135 will have sand sub. i am going to switch the 10 to sand to get a feel for working with it/growing plants in it.

plus i honestly dont think my plants have done better with the flourite.
 
I mixed my flourite with eco-complete, and I think it tones down the red color somewhat. Also it is good for plants. In my 55g,though, I have eco-complete mixed with sand and gravel. It looks very natural, and the plants seem ok--but they are mostly stem plants.
 
quoted from rexgrigg.com

Call it gravel which it should not be as normally gravel has a grain size in excess of 4.5mm and for a planted tank you really want to stick with a grain size in the 1-3mm size which is normally what one would call coarse sand. The epoxy coated stuff they sell in bags at the Local Fish/Pet Store is not what one would want for a substrate.
Click to expand...
 
tanker said:
When you say "sand" do you really mean sand or smaller gravel?? If you want plants (IMO) sand is too fine.

Just put some sand/gravel over the flourite.
Click to expand...


I use sand in my planted tank and the plants do just fine. Nothing added to the sand, just plain old sand.

Check out the pics in my signature. The latest pics are at the end.
 
most of the bacteria is in the filter. changing the gravel might give you a small cycle. i had sand with some gravel on top it was great. i just wanted to change of look. do what ever you want. just sand or mix it. if its not a heavly planted tank you should stear the sand up once a month or so.
 
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