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29 Gallon Substrate Question

5K views 31 replies 6 participants last post by  JDM 
#1 ·
I have a 29 gallon tank with some feeder guppies, CPDs, Zebra danios, and cherry shrimp. The plants I have are wisteria, anacharis, java moss, and java fern. The wisteria is looking a little weak, some of the anacharis is looking bad and some is looking great, the the java fern is the same way and the moss looks good but growing slow. I use ferts and I'm working on DIY CO2 and creating a stronger light.

BUT! I can't even keep the dang anacharis in in the gravel. Seems silly to try to balance the chemistry and lighting if I just have a bunch of floating anacharis. The bottoms of the plant look shredded and rootless

I originally bought the gravel for a piranha tank years ago. It is a mix of natural rough and smooth rock. I now know from some online research that the gravel is probably rough on the plants and cutting into them and is bigger than most recommendations for planted aquariums.

So, I started looking into the pricey planted tank substrates. A Seachem calculator said I needed about 45 pounds or three of their bags ($60) to cover 3 inches. So my question is, can you get away with maybe only 50% plant substrate and 50% inert substrate suitable for plants.
 
#2 ·
Just go with play sand, far cheaper, works with plants, works with bottom feeders, looks more natural than most substrates and won't mess with the water enough to worry about.

Oh, and far cheaper.

Jeff.
 
#4 ·
I don't know about black. It's got to be play sand though or it will have crap in it.
Even then you need to rinse the finer silt and dust out if it.

Jeff
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#5 ·
I preferr pool filter sand. It is super cheap 5-10$ It is generally light brown, and is easier than play sand to clean. Lowes has it and varous other major retailers in the usa. I highly preferr sand as opposed to gravel, and the colored sand I tried from the pet store sucked pretty bad as it bled off the color and was really hard to get clean.
 
#9 ·
I agree, I prefer PFS over play sand hands down. My experience with play sand was awful - I can't understand why it's suggested. Must have been the brand?.....
 
#7 ·
Sure it will sit on top, however it will sink into the sand somewhat and fertilize the plants. I don't really vac mine and it just seems to disapear. I do have mts snails, maybe they eat it idk? I'm semi new to planted tanks too, and I did try colored sand from petco, just didn't turn out well. This is a 29 gal tank and the sand for it costed like 7.50$
 
#10 ·
Idk about that tank with the black sand- that is my fathers tank in a different state, he posts pictures in my image shack to show me rather than emailing them. Mine is the planted one- his is the fake decor one with the mean big fishy. I like little nice fishy like neons and cat fishes.
 
#12 ·
Hankj, these are my observations after 20+ years of substrates including fine gravel, pea gravel, play sand, and Flourite (Seachem's "enriched" plant substrate in black).

To the initial question of the plant rooting. There may well be other factors here, as the lack of roots and disintegrating lower stems suggests. Leaving this aside, most stem plants will root easiest in fine gravel or sand.

To the issue of types of sand. But first, the fish should determine the substrate, if any in this tank have substrate-related needs. Substrate fish such as corys should always have sand. Loaches can be sand or fine gravel, depending upon the species. Most cichlids are best with sand, as they feed from the substrate, or fine gravel or pea gravel for the larger Central American species works.

Now to sand types. I was disappointed with the black Flourite on two counts. First, plant growth was not improved over my sand and gravel tanks. Second, every spec of detritus and "stuff" showed up. Third, this is too sharp for substrate fish or cichlids.

I use play sand, now in 6 of 7 tanks, the 7th has fine dark mix gravel. These mixed sands and gravels hide detritus, and in the case of play sand the appearance is near identical to many Amazon streams, so it is natural.

Other types of sand can work, but be careful of the roughness. Play sand is made for kids to play in, so it is probably about the best you can get on this count. Now, before others jump in, I'm not saying all pool sand, etc is rough--but some of it is.

Byron.
 
#15 ·
I used another brand.... the sand was made up of a lot of clear/white quartz mixed with some red, brown, darker and odd colours along with some shell material... so it's an interesting mix in the tank. I actually have a picture of it here. I tagged on a picture of pool filter sand too, for camparison. I find it too light for my taste.

I did buy a bag of the Quickrete product and found it finer grained but never washed enough of it to see what the end colour was like or how dirty it was. It did have black limestone in it instead of white shell parts and it is a more homogenous colour pre-washing.

Interesting note, lots say that PFS is too sharp... if I were comparing the two sands side by side, I would have guessed that the play sand is far "sharper" looking.

Jeff.
 

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#16 ·
Different forums push different substrates. This one is heavy on the play sand, while others push the PFS.
 
#18 ·
I think it ends up being a personal preference and a tolerance for the washing process.

I did call the local pool place and talked to the owners, they advised against the filter sand. They said that they had planned on using it for one of their tanks and the manufacturer mentioned that the sand was treated with something and not suitable for use with fish. I never investigated that further so I don't know what it was about.

Jeff.
 
#19 ·
I have 3 different brands of pool filter sand - They're all fantastic. It's WIDELY used. I don't recall ever hearing about pool filter sand being treated with anything.
 
#29 ·
Actually what I do is to direct a fan at the bag and pour moving just beyond where the fan blows the sand. Only the dust is blown. Then I rinse it once, pour into the tank and put a plastic bag and dim
Miner plate on top of the bag. I then gently pour the water on the plate so the sand is not disturbed.I don't use the filter for about 24 hours so much of the silt comes to rest. After hooking up the filter I clean it after a day or so.....never had a problem - yet!
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#30 ·
Hose and bucket.

A couple of pounds in the bottom, blast with hose, pour off crappy water.

Repeat until the water pours off mostly clear.... I've done as many as 15 times but the law of diminishing returns applies after about 6 or 7.

Dump sand into another bucket and peat with another batch until you have enough for the tank.

I can stir up the sand in my tank and have nothing cloud the water. I even scoop some up at the front and dump it in the back, trying to keep a sloped grade, and still nothing much gets into the water... other than a bit of mulm but that's not really from the sand.

Jeff.
 
#32 ·
It depends on how clean it is to start. Even with all the rinsing that I did there is cloudiness on the first fill up, particularly after planting and scaping while water is in. I just siphoned off all the water and refilled it so I didn't wait for it to settle. It will, eventually, but the finer the particles still in the sand, the longer it will take to settle. After 12 hours, whatever is left in the water won't hurt a filter impeller, there is enough clearance in those, being a centifugal pump, to handle that.

I think I implied that it was just the rinsing that lets me have clear water even when playing in the sand, thats not completely the case. Once the tank is full, whatever fine stuff is left in the sand eventually settles into the bottom of the substrate layer, the cleaner the sand is initially, the quicker this happens. I look at my sand now and it looks a lot courser than it did when initially put in due to this settling. That is one reason not to got stirring it around, although, like I mentioned, I can do that without any cloudiness at all now.

Jeff.
 
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