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Just changed over to sand substrate

4K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  Calmwaters 
#1 ·
I finally bit the bullet and bought 100 lbs of play sand from lowes for $6. I would have rather used pool filter sand but around here this time of year good luck finding it. The play sand just took more rinsing to get rid of the dirt and really fine sand that would cause clouding problems. The play sand also has larger chunks of quartz in it that look really nice where pool filter sand is generally a bit larger and more uniform. The results are great and I would never go back to gravel. I will be planting the tank heavily with large lowlight plants this week. Here is a bad photo:

 
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#2 ·
I finally bit the bullet and bought 100 lbs of play sand from lowes for $6. I would have rather used pool filter sand but around here this time of year good luck finding it. The play sand just took more rinsing to get rid of the dirt and really fine sand that would cause clouding problems. The play sand also has larger chunks of quartz in it that look really nice where pool filter sand is generally a bit larger and more uniform. The results are great and I would never go back to gravel. I will be planting the tank heavily with large lowlight plants this week. Here is a bad photo:


nice nice!!:thumbsup:
 
#5 ·
Looks nice. I noticed your sand bed looks pretty thick though. How deep is it? You may want to take a bit out so you don't have problems with anaerobic gas pockets.
 
#6 ·
Its a little deeper than planned, 3ish inches maybe a bit more, wanted to make sure the plants stay put. Also I am planning to setup my 10 gallon tank again as a shrimp tank and was going to use the cycled sand out of this tank (plus some sponges I have stashed in the filter) so I kind of overfilled. I was thinking about getting some snails that will dig in the sand or just poke at the sand with a hair pick when doing maintenance.
 
#13 ·
Nice! I agree that a plain black background would really help the tank to pop.

Hopefully your Anubias are tied to some wood or rocks? They shouldn't have their rhizomes buried.
 
#14 ·
The big ones on the ends came in big pots with that green foam stuff and I pretty much just stuck the entire mass about half way into the sand so the roots are burried but the. rhizomes are not buried. They are too big to tie to drift wood same with the big java ferns.
 
#15 ·
I believe it is better to remove them from the pots and the green stuff it makes it easier for the roots to begin to grow in the gravel.
 
#17 ·
would sticking a hair pin in work because it would make things easier for me. And also do snails [mystery] move around the sand because that would be even better then the hair pin
 
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