# Is Sand Enough?



## mark4785 (30 Sep 2011)

I recently bought a 120 litre aquarium with the idea of turning it into a mid to high light aquarium with vast variety of slow-fast growing plants. Co2 injection and a clip on light will be added to the aquarium at some point.

My question is, in order to get excellent plant growth, do I need more than just sand as a substrate? If so, why and can anybody make any recommendations?

I dodged the idea of using any special substrates that are designed to enhance plant growth 1 year ago when I started my first planted tank because I heard that it loses it's function due to becoming expired (i.e.the nutrients for the plants eventually becomes used up in such substrates).


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## ghostsword (1 Oct 2011)

There is nothing wrong with sand, but plants need nutrients. So if you dose well and keep with the schedule, then you could just have sand.

You just need to worry about gases on the sand, that is the main worry.


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## mark4785 (1 Oct 2011)

ghostsword said:
			
		

> There is nothing wrong with sand, but plants need nutrients. So if you dose well and keep with the schedule, then you could just have sand.
> 
> You just need to worry about gases on the sand, that is the main worry.
> 
> ...



Ok thanks for your confirmation. I have an EI dosing schedule and 99% of the time I follow it. Where I'm unable to I switch the aquarium lights off for a day to prevent algae issues.


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## Alastair (1 Oct 2011)

I uses to use sand to but got fed up of the constant turning it etc. And when I eventually pulled it out my god was there lots of black patches and the smell was awful lol. Happy with my cat litter now he he


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## mark4785 (1 Oct 2011)

Alastair said:
			
		

> I uses to use sand to but got fed up of the constant turning it etc. And when I eventually pulled it out my god was there lots of black patches and the smell was awful lol. Happy with my cat litter now he he



I agree that it can harbour some nasty stuff because when I disturb the sand (even by just flicking a bit) the German Blue Ram I have starts rubbing himself on bog wood etc as though ammonia has been released from the substrate. Also, the sand goes up the syphon a lot during water changes so bit by bit I am losing sand and will at some point need to top it up again!

Other than the above problems sand has a lot of positives, including it's ability to not allow solids/food to easily pass through the top layers, and in my opinion, it looks much more superb than just lobbing in pea gravel.


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## foxfish (1 Oct 2011)

But foods, etc, passing into the substrate will be food for the plants?


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## ghostsword (1 Oct 2011)

Yeah sand ha that issue. I never use more than 2cm, would not use it to plant anything in, for that same reason. Easy to get compacted and go nasty.

There are other options to pea gravel, many other options.


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## dw1305 (3 Oct 2011)

Hi all,
If you have Malaysian Trumpet Snails, and some plants with chunky roots like _Echinodorus_, you shouldn't have problems with anoxic areas.

cheers Darrel


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## sanj (6 Oct 2011)

dw1305 said:
			
		

> Hi all,
> If you have Malaysian Trumpet Snails, and some plants with chunky roots like _Echinodorus_, you shouldn't have problems with anoxic areas.
> 
> cheers Darrel



Yup, I dont have sand substrate, but use MTS for the purpose of turning over the substrate. If you ask nicely, your local MA store may give you some free when you purchase fish from thier store. These snails cause them a bit of bother, but I find they are great in planted tank. I also keep Assasin snails to help control the population.


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## PeteA (8 Oct 2011)

Rather than start a new thread, am I safe to assume that something like Unipac Micro Gravel is ok for most things (with Ei dosing or similar)?  Is there anything that couldn't be grown or shouldn't be attempted to be grown?

pete.


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## dw1305 (9 Oct 2011)

Hi all,
Fine gravel is a good substrate, the difference between the silica based gravels and sands and the calcined clay based substrates is really just that the clay based substrates have the ability to hold and exchange ions (CEC/AEC) and the silica based substrates don't. If you are using a dosing regime like EI it is purely a matter of personal choice which you go for, the plants are going to obtain their nutrients (as ions) from the water column, and nutrients are always going to be available. Despite what you may read about _Echinodorus or Cryptocoryne_ spp. being heavy root feeders and needing a nutritious substrate, the plants don't care whether they are foliar fed or take up nutrients via the roots. 

I usually mix a small amount of humus (which also has a high CEC/AEC) and clay with silica sand based substrates, but I'm not going to be adding very much in the way of nutrients and I don't use CO2 (or liquid carbon supplements). I do this to give me a small potential reserve of nutrients. 

My aim is different from many in that I'm not interested in aquascaping, or aiming for optimal plant growth, quite the opposite in fact I'm aiming to keep my system as oligotrophic as possible, with  a large biomass of plants which are nutrient deprived and just ticking over. This means that I need plants with plastic growth rates and morphologies, so that they can grow in nutrient depleted conditions. I tend to stick to "low light" plants like _Cryptocoryne_ spp., mosses, Ferns, _Anubias_ etc and floaters/emergents _Echinodorus_  (which have access to atmospheric CO2), as they work in nutrient depleted systems.

For the plants to work as a phytofilter (which is partially why I have them), they have to be in active growth, so I don't want them to become so nutrient deprived (usually either NO3- or K+ will be completely depleted) that they begin to absciss leaves and senesce.

cheers Darrel


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## mark4785 (11 Oct 2011)

Thanks for the replies. I've gone ahead and paid for and received a 25kg bag of natural smooth sand (sourced from a beach somewhere in China I'm told!).

I am still waiting for an inline diffuser and external bubble counter to arrive in the post before introducing the sand and getting the aquarium filter running.


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