# Malaysian Trumpet Snail In An 'El Natural' Tank



## A Bull With Yogurts (15 Oct 2015)

Hi,

I'm totally new to all this and having a stab at setting up an El Natural tank (350L). I'm currently in the preparation stages of my soil and driftwood. I am planning to have an inch of soil capped by an inch of sand. I want to put Malaysian Trumpet Snails in the tank to stir the sand and minimise the development of any nasty gas bubbles due to anaerobic bacteria. Just wondering though if it's wise to put a plastic mesh between the soil and sand layers (as described here) to prevent the snails going too deep and bringing loads of soil to the surface?

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.


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## BigTom (15 Oct 2015)

Personally I never had an issue with soil/sand going anaerobic. There was often some gas bubbling up from the soil, but as far as I could tell it was always odourless and presumably largely CO2. Haven't tried MTS in a soil tank, I imagine it could get messy.


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## A Bull With Yogurts (15 Oct 2015)

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. Not keen on going for the muddy swamp look with this partcular tank. Any idea how deep MTS tend to burrow?


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## dw1305 (15 Oct 2015)

Hi all, 
I'm a MTS fan, and I think it should be fine without a membrane, but you might be best with fairly coarse sand. 

I set-up one tank with 95% sand (with a small amount of clay and leaf mould), but I wanted a little bit more substrate after I'd run out of sand, so I added some gravel to the lower level. I've got MTS, and the tank has had various _Apistogramma_ in it (they are a geophagine cichlid). 

After about a year all the gravel was on top of the substrate via the "nuts in muesli" effect (<"Granular convection">).

cheers Darrel


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## A Bull With Yogurts (15 Oct 2015)

OK, that's good to know. I don't really want a membrane if I can get away without one.

I've bought 25kg of Unipac Limpopo to go in the tank. Apparently it's a good choice for small catfish as it doesn't damage their barbels. The grain size is apparently 1.0mm - 1.2mm.

When I was reading up on capping substrates I did come across a couple of accounts of very fine sand (mostly the white and silver stuff) convecting under the soil over time. Do you reckon a 1mm grain size is likely to do the same? If so then maybe a membrane might be best.


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## dw1305 (16 Oct 2015)

Hi all, 





A Bull With Yogurts said:


> When I was reading up on capping substrates I did come across a couple of accounts of very fine sand (mostly the white and silver stuff) convecting under the soil over time.


I think it is just down to particle size. If you have any mixing agent at all, over time all the larger particles will end up on top.

cheers Darrel


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