Sand and plants

James0816

James0816

AC Members
Feb 14, 2007
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I'm setting up a couple of tanks and wanting to use sand as a substrate. I plan on going with lots of plants as well. Been doing some reading and get mixed reviews as to whether plants would do ok in sand. I don't have Eco Complete or any type like that just regular silica sand.

What are your experiences, recommendations, etc. with this?

Thx
 
I have sand in a few of my tanks and the plants are doing well. I dose ferts and use root tabs for sword plants and root feeders. I like the look of sand and my fish like to sift through it. You can't beat the price either 8)
 
For high tech tanks, pool filter sand can work very well. You have to manually disturb it periodically to keep nasty anaerobic things from happening, but trumpet snails can help with this. You also have to be either picky about your vacuum's dimensions for the drop your siphon used or you have to be adept at keepint it just above the surface of the sand to be able to suck up the poop w/o sucking up sand.
 
I think it's just that sand has been discussed a lot... and the answers are here if you look. but to give you some peace of mind, sand should be fine for plants, you just need to adjust your cleaning methods and be gentle around roots. you'll want to keep some extra sand around to replace what you lose during water changes and the like... and I'd imagine you'll want to be sure and let plants establish good root systems before disturbing them with high currents or big fishes.
 
thx mellow...i have read quite a bit of articles on sand. i've only dealt with gravel before and was just looking for how others thought about the plant/sand combo and any advise to lend.

that one video on the cichlid forum was incredibly helpful for cleaning. i just didn't want to go into it full bore, throw all kinds of plants in there just to have them die out on me.
 
James0816 said:
I'm setting up a couple of tanks and wanting to use sand as a substrate. I plan on going with lots of plants as well. Been doing some reading and get mixed reviews as to whether plants would do ok in sand. I don't have Eco Complete or any type like that just regular silica sand.
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How big is your tank? Like you, I'm planning to use sand as a substrate, but, from my reading, I plan to lay in a bottom layer of laterite. A 55oz box isn't all that expensive, and it will provide good food for your plants.
 
Squawkbert said:
For high tech tanks, pool filter sand can work very well. You have to manually disturb it periodically to keep nasty anaerobic things from happening, but trumpet snails can help with this. You also have to be either picky about your vacuum's dimensions for the drop your siphon used or you have to be adept at keepint it just above the surface of the sand to be able to suck up the poop w/o sucking up sand.
Click to expand...

something else that stirring the sand is good for is keeping it from getting compacted. compacted sand can inhibit and choke plant roots.. therefore, in addition to preventing anaerobic gas pockets from forming, stirring can help your plants grow large and UNinhibited.
 
I've also heard people keeping MTSs. They will work under the sand to help churn things up right? Will they also eat the plants?
 
I just found this on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDX1j1z5mME It's a time lapse video of MTS eating algae.

I switched to sand substrate about 4 months ago and some plants seem to prefer it, others don't. My vals did really well in gravel, but not so much in sand. I think it prefers a looser substrate to spread its roots.
On the other hand, my Asian Ambulia and Rotala are doing very well in sand.

As for MTS, they will eat fish eggs. So if you plan on breeding egg laying fish, I will avoid them. If you are lucky, your catfish and cories may lay eggs.
MTS supposedly only eat rotting plants.

If you are worried about gas building up, I always poke around my sand with the vacuum tube during my fortnightly clean. So far so good *fingers crossed*
 
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