Silica Sand

[Dread]

Would Silica Sand be a decent substrate to use in a 10g tank? I don't want to waste any of my expensive ADA products just for this small tank, and I have a bunch of left over sand. It would only be housing S. Subulata, because I can no longer keep it in a bucket outside (where it was doing great... ). I'll dose Flourish and Excel using the EI method, and the tank gets 25 watts of Compact Florescent lighting, 10 hours a day. So would silica sand be able to maintain the plants? I don't really need them to grow... just not die.

 

[craigthor]

When I had silica sand my plants never did so great ddin't help that the Africans would continuosly dig them up and eat them.

Craig

 

[WyldFya]

A bigger issue is that silica sand will be a great way to have excessive brown algae.

 

[Dread]

I'm not really doing to worry about Algae, since this is just pretty much a "holding tank." I don't need the plants to grow, I just need them to not die.

 

[WyldFya]

Then yes it will do fine.

 

[Bderick67]

Seems sensless to keep plants or fish, just so they don't die. If you can't properly take care of things maybe you should try Beanie babies or something along that line.

 

[Dread]

Seems sensless to keep plants or fish, just so they don't die. If you can't properly take care of things maybe you should try Beanie babies or something along that line.

What? All of my fish are in perfect health, most in tanks 3x larger than they would thrive in (ie, a single 1/2 grown convict in a 55 all to itself), most of my tanks get 50% water changes three times a week. Soon, I'll be opening up a larger tank for my german blue rams (and possibly some new Altum Angels I've been offered), and I can't place the plants I plan to use in any other tank, as they'll get eaten and destroyed by the fish. So I need a place to put them in the mean time, and I'd hate to waste a $50 bag of Substrate on a tank the plants are only in for a couple weeks. It won't matter if they grow in this tank, it's just used to hold them for abit. Once they get into their permanent tank, they'll grow like mad. Pressurized C02 systems, Ei Dosing with an entire Flourish line, and ADA substrate usually has that effect. So please try not to make assumptions when you obviously don't understand the original idea.