Substrate for plants

[James0816]

Begining the conversion from gravel to sand in one of my tanks. I am very slowly adding the sand at only small increments at a time (fishies are still occupying the space so have to be carefull). So, after adding about four bowls of sand to the tank I got to thinking about the future plant life going in. Being that sand compacts quite a bit and might not be good for the plants, would it be a good idea to have a small bed of gravel at the bottom of the sand to allow the roots to intertwine through or just not worry about it. I do plan on adding some MTS and some other small fishies (cories probably) to help keep things stired up. Just want to ensure to promote good plant growth in there.

Thx.

 

[Cory Keeper]

don't worry, just fill the entire thing with sand. My tank below is sand, found at lowes/hd. Plants do just fine, infact the 2 banana plants (Nymphoides aquatica) have grown roots deep, long roots through the sand bed,

 

[TKOS]

With MTS in your tank you should be fine. Depending on your filter setup you may want to add prefilters to your tank. This is normally just sponges or something. This can help protect your filter motors from sucking up too much sand particles in the water.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

have and had sand tanks for years no worries. i do add sponges to all my intakes though.