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[font color="#000080"]Does sand and plants mix well?
Or do plants thrive in sand?

Sort of the same question, but oh well

[span class="edited"][Edited by JQW 2004-06-30 19:52][/span]

yes.

Many plant keeper keep a layer of sand and a layer of soil for the roots of the plants to grow in. Then add a layer of gavel to keep the soil and sand from mirking up the water too much.

It is the best medium to use with heating coils (cables) under the substrate.

[span class="edited"][Edited by dragonfish 2004-06-30 19:51][/span]

Most folks that use CO2 add laterite or some iron rich amendment in the bottom 1/2-1/3 of 2-3mm sized sand.

Most folks that do non CO2 method use more organic based materials, soil, peat, mulm etc and cap this with 2-3" of sand.

Regards,
Tom Barr

I have sand in one of my planted tanks, it's covered by a layer of black gravel. Looks nice and the plants are growing very well.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I my planted tank is a mixture of about 1/3 gravel 2/3 sand mixed together not layered or anything like that and I have had no problems with it at all.

The only bad thing I have heard about sand is that pockets of anerobic bacteria can build up under the sand. Then one day you go and disturb the subtrate and it releases all this bad gas that kills your fish. You can prevent this by disturbing the sand occasionally. This can be acheived by poking or stirring the sand with a stick or by using heat cables under the sand to induce heat current through the sand. This also keeps anerobic bacteria from stagnating around the roots of your rooted plants (which you do not want to desturb).

Oh, and be sure not to use sand with traces of lime ot calcareous.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Dragonfish 2004-07-02 21:48][/span]

think i'll go with a layer of gravel and then a layer of sand on top of that. what do you's think?

That layer of sand will be non-existant in a short period of time. What it will do is filter down through the gravel making the substrate nice and compacted , kind of like a concrete effect when fish waste, etc is added to the equation. The sand and waste materials will fill in the gaps of the gravel, and the next thing you know when you go to vac the substrate you'll be getting little air bubbles coming up from the substrate.

if i have a pure sand substrate, will i be able to vacuum the sand? won't it be too light and get sucked up?

Jake, what do you think is the best to do? I really want some sand on the top.

If you want sand on the top, you'll have to make it all sand. You just skim over the top, just close enough to suck up junk, not close enough to suck up sand. Every once in awhile you'll have to disturb the sand...people call it " stirring" the substrate but you're not actually doing that... you're not trying to kick sand up all over the place. You're just gently cultivating it with a small tool of some sort to ensure it does not compact and get a build up of bad gases.