Live plants and sand

I'm not a pro, but I've tried this. Seems that the only plant that has done well in my sand bottom aquariums are called 'good luck bamboo'. Other plants just seem like their roots couldn't 'breathe', their roots all turned to brown/black mush. I use pool filter sand in in one, and the Crayola colored play sand in the others.

My 125 has PFS substrate. Heavily planted with vals, bolbitis, tiger lotus, barclaya, amazon swords, dwarf sag, hygrophila, and probably a few I forgot to mention. All are growing great. PFS doesn't compact, and even other sands that do won't bother the roots. They grow in pretty nasty substrates in the wild.

jamesf did u plant ur plants in a bowel or leave them on a matt? did use root tabs?

my criticism for sand and plants is that with even deep beds, sifting, burrowing, etc fish will have your plants uprooted in no time.
i'm constantly fighting my frontosas and clown loaches with that.
my thoughts are to put a layer of mesh in the sand at a certain point that i can cut through to place the roots through, but that the fish will not be able to move the sand underneath.
that is my plan for my next planted tank setup, cuz this constant replanting is infuriating.

duanes said:

I use PFS in all my tanks, here are a couple

Click to expand...

What fish is this?

Also, as for the sand, I actually really like sand as a substrate, plants root easily in it, and it looks nice. I, however, don't use it alone, but I use it with dirt underneath. Otherwise, I'd say you should invest in good root tabs like osmocote+ tabs that people sell and Gro-Soil tabs.

Check out my 10 gallon journal. Its not pool filter sand, its just black sand from petco with organic potting mix underneath. I also recommend getting trumpet snails if doing sand....keeps the substrate aerated. Doubly recommended if you are doing dirt and sand.

i use Malaysian trumpet snails in all of my sand tanks. they really help keep anaerobic pockets from forming. most people don't like them cuz they do multiply like crazy, but i like them for their cleaning and sifting abilities as well as being a nice snack for my clown loaches. win/win as far as i'm concerned.
i never went soil bottom on my planted tanks, thought for the next one i definitely will. that's why i would put a mesh barrier down, to help keep the plants rooted and to keep a cap on the soil as my tank has clown loaches, blue zaire fronts and geophagus altifrons who all love to sift and dig. would be a mess if they got to the soil and muddied up the tank.

I was worried about adding plants to the substrate on my Banjo Tank (Sand bottom but not PFS) .... gotta say in over 6 months not one plant has been uprooted but all plants got 1 root tab upon planting to help get the roots established. This includes Vals, Red Wendtii, Bacopa, Ludwigia, Wisteria, Madagascar Lace Leaf and 2 types of Swords.