Sand substrate problems

[Pjv81]

What’s up everyone, I’ve been having issues keeping carpeting plants in my sand substrate, it’s just play sand that has been washed multiple times before putting into the tank. I believe the sand it too hard for the carpeting plants to sprout and spread and have finally give up on them.

My question is has anyone used a small container like plastic or ceramic/glass dish before and buried it into the sand and had like eco complete inside the dish and planted carpeting plants in there.

Anyone use sand and have had great success with plants carpeting.

I am currently on no Co2 and believe that could also be a big factor. I use aquarium co-ops easy green and also root tabs on the sand around the plants to help them grow and venture off.

 

[jjohnwm]

I'm far from a "plant guy", but I have had decent success in many tanks over the years with plants growing quite well in various types of sand; pool filter sand is my favourite by far. It's quite clean, and is very dense and heavy so it sinks quickly and stays put. This also makes it easier to rinse thoroughly before use.

I've also been quite happy with tanks using silica sand, but find the stark white colour quite unattractive. Some types of sand sold for use in sand-blasters works well, others are far too abrasive and sharp-edged. Black Diamond sand is one type made from slag...the waste material from smelters...and some folks report good luck with it, but others report an oily slick on the surface of the water when using it. Horrid stuff, IMHO.

The absolute worst sand to use, IMHO, is play sand. It isn't as dense as other choices, so can be stirred up by fish, by cleaning procedures, by water movement, etc. and then sucked up into filters. It does a number on the impellers of water pumps. It's extremely dirty and requires multiple rinses before use, and this is made more complicated by its relatively light weight that keeps the particles suspended in the water for longer. Worst of all, play sand has a tendency to pack into a hard solid slab that plant roots have difficulty penetrating.

I've grown many plants in simple clay pots, with a small handful of potting soil in the bottom and then capped off with pool filter sand. Works like a charm, but not as easy to hide as you might wish.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; A way around construction/play sand compaction problems follows. I found that dry sifting the sand can get rid of the finer grains & dust. I have built a frame of 2x4's and used screen wire attached to the bottom. The size of the final grains is determined by the screen. I have found construction sand to hold a variety of grain sizes.
Having kept plants for several decades un-sifted sand has not worked out very well. I find a grain size something like BB sized or slightly larger to be more workable. I also like to have a bed of substrate at least four inches deed and usually deeper.
A note of caution about fine sand- Fine grain sand is reported to create anerobic pockets which can grow anerobic bacteria. Those bacteria can form toxins in those pockets. Tricks folks are suggested to use are keep the sand very shallow and to stir up the sand often.

Dry screening the sand also helps get rid of the cloudiness which results from stirring the sand. I have not personally used pool filter sand which can be had commercially. A also have not used the black diamond slag. So cannot report on either.

Back in the 1970's I bought up a lot of what i suspect is crushed granite. It is a black and white gravel around the size of small soy beans to small peas. Such has been the basis of my planted tanks. I have reused the gravel many times.

 

[duanes]

This is my 125 gal, using about 1" of PF sand, no ferts, no CO2.
It is connected to a 180 gal cichlid tank, and where it gets its nutrient load, and a little food sometimes overflow into it.
There is a cadre of about half dozen freshwater shrimp that take care of the food that overflow overflow, and clean up old plant parts.

Beside the Vals, there are a couple water lilies, Hydrocotl, that populate the surface area, and a few mangrove trees at one end.

 

[phreeflow]

Besides CO2 is the fact that you have a tall tank and a weak light so not enough PAR to the bottom. Not sure what carpeting plant you’ve tried but in your setup, you’ll have better luck getting a carpet of dwarf Sagittaria, cryptocoryne lucens, or marsilea minuta/hirsuta. Marsilea looks amazing but grows super slow so you might want to dry start that but Dwarf Sagittaria will carpet pretty quick. Just make sure it’s the actual dwarf variety because I often got stuck with the taller growing one even when ordering dwarf