Help with substrate for new planted 20G

[summit]

I am doing a new 20 gallon tank, which will be planted and using 24" T-5 lighting, either 2 or 4 bulbs @ 24W for a total of 48-96W of lighting, so I hope to do a pretty nice high light tank.

As far as the substrate goes I would like to do a black sand, but have a few questions before pulling the trigger, will I have problems with the sand getting sucked up into the fluval 105 filter I have for it? Or is there ways around this? Its going to be a peaceful tank with tertras/rasboras so I do not expect the fish to kick it up too much.

Regarding the black sand choice I am having a hard time deciding between the black tahiti moon sand, or the fluorite black sand, I am leaning towards the fluorite as its for planted tanks, but have also heard some bad, can someone chime in with some experience?

Thanks!

 

[mommytron]

i've heard all good about the fluorite substrate. i have no experience with it personally but it looks great in tanks. i think tahitian moon sand is much finer than the fluorite sand, so it has more of a chance of causing problems. there are ways around it though, like you could put a prefilter on your filter intake. i've also heard though that the tahitian moon sand has a tendency of looking dirty because everything shows up on the matte black color.

 

[JohnPaul]

I have Flourite Black Sand (FBS) in all 3 of my tanks, all of which are planted. Great substrate for plants, essentially eliminates any need to use fertilizer tabs in the substrate, which you would definitely have to do with something like Tahitian Moon Sand (TMS).

The only real negative to FBS that I can think of is you REALLY have to rinse it before putting it in your tank. And rinse and rinse and rinse. And no matter how much you rinse it, when you finally do put it in, the tank will be so cloudy for the first 24-48 hours you will swear that you are never going to be able to see more than 1" past the glass! But have no fear--it will all clear up in a few days. The more you can rinse the FBS before putting it in, the quicker it will eventually clear up for you. If you want to speed up the process, then put a nice thick layer of filter floss in the fluvial during the initial few days while you are working on clearing up the cloudiness, and check it periodically and switch in new floss once the old stuff gets all gunked up.

Btw here is a picture of one of my 10g tanks with the FBS as the substrate.

And here is a REAL close-up of it; that snail is a little bit less than 1/4" in diameter so it gives you a feel for the grain size of the FBS. It is not super fine like child's play sand would be, but larger in grain size...even larger than pool filter sand. Can't imagine there being any problems with it getting sucked into the filter unless you had the filter running while you were rummaging around in the sand planting something.

I will say that TMS, which has these reflective white flecks in it, can look really stunning under the right lighting. But because it has those flecks, it also looks less "natural" than the FBS does especially in the context of a planted tank (in my opinion, at least, others I suppose may disagree).

Please let us know what you decide, and by all means, post pictures!

 

[summit]

thanks for your replies, so I have heard from 2-3 lbs/gallon for substrate, for a planted tank is it better to go with 3 lbs/gallon for a deeper substrate? It makes the difference whether I should get 3 (46.2 lbs) bags or 4 (61.4 lbs) for the 20 gallon

And thats a great tank, I can only hope mine will look that great once all said and done!

 

[JohnPaul]

thanks for your replies, so I have heard from 2-3 lbs/gallon for substrate, for a planted tank is it better to go with 3 lbs/gallon for a deeper substrate? It makes the difference whether I should get 3 (46.2 lbs) bags or 4 (61.4 lbs) for the 20 gallon

And thats a great tank, I can only hope mine will look that great once all said and done!

Well just a word of warning, FBS is actually a fair amount "lighter" than standard silica sands (or even gravels or Eco-complete), so a calculation based on weight might be incorrect. If you go to the Seachem website, on their FBS page there is a calculator at the bottom where you can put in your tank dimensions and how deep you want the FBS and it will tell you exactly how much you need. In my tanks I aimed for about 2" of depth and that has worked fine for my purposes; I suppose if you wanted to get more creative than me in terms of making mounds or making the bottom more "hilly" than you might need a little more.

My guess is 3 bags will be plenty, but without knowing the exact dimensions of your 20g I wouldn't want to say that for sure.

And thanks for the compliment, though that picture is about 2 years old. Recently I've almost completely overhauled that tank so it looks much different now. The betta has also passed on to the great fishbowl in the sky, and the tank now houses my Blue ramshorn snails (the second pic in my post above is one of my orange/tangerine ramshorns) and will soon be home to about a dozen Yellow shrimp.

 

[summit]

Thanks, you have been lots of help, never took into consideration the fluorite would be lighter than sand, after the calculations on the seachem site it looks like 3 bags will give me more than enough.

 

[Dr. Scroggins..]

black substrate is the way to got, and i chose ADA Aquasoil for mine and would not even think about using something else. it's made for the planted aquarium and its a bit more expensive, but my plants are absolutely flourishing with it. it's available in tow sizes and colors. comes packed with nutrients, and does well at sucking up nutrients out of the water and holding it for plants that are primarily root feeders. also it is convienient because the Aquasoil leeches a lot of ammonia when first set up, which you can use to spark a fishless cycle. i used it for my 1st planted tank and it has been amazing, i seriously recommend it.

ADA Substrate System

 

[summit]

well I found another question, I have the option of Fluorite black sand, or onyx sand, both of which are good with plants, anyone know the difference between the 2 products from seachem? I am assuming the size of the particle but have not been able to confirm.

 

[DragonFish71]

After reading the details for both products on the Seachem website, they are about the same.

 

[DragonFish71]

http://www.seachem.com/support/GravelMineralComposition.pdf



Something else I came across. The descriptions are about the same but the composition is different.

 

[summit]

Hmm interesting, I have no idea how to use those numbers unfortunetly, it looks like they both do well for planted tanks, the onyx apparently has some slight buffering, but other than that I see no difference. Anyone that has any, please chime in as per the color and grain size? It looks as though the onyx sand has a larger partical if I was to go by the website, as well as a more grey color.

I wish they had it in my area so I could see for myself!

 

[JohnPaul]

well I found another question, I have the option of Fluorite black sand, or onyx sand, both of which are good with plants, anyone know the difference between the 2 products from seachem? I am assuming the size of the particle but have not been able to confirm.

Onyx sand buffers your pH relatively high in the alkaline range...not as high as pure crushed coral, but it definitely raises your pH some. Whereas the FBS is completely inert regarding pH.

Plus the onyx sand, despite its name, is NOT black in color. It is a relatively light grey. I've never seen it in person but I have seen pictures of it in tanks before, and I really didn't care for it because it didn't look (to me) like any color you would ever see in nature. In nature you see black (soil) and you see various shades of brown/tan (sand). But it's really pretty rare to see light grey in nature--at least anywhere I have ever lived. I think it might work in a concept tank that was intentionally going for something modern looking rather than natural looking. But otherwise...I'm not convinced.

ADA Amazonia is another option; that substrate is at the opposite end of the spectrum as far as pH. It acidifies your water and softens it as well. This makes it a fabulous choice in those tanks where you are going to be housing species that prefer soft/acidic water. However, Amazonia also "breaks down" over time and needs to be replaced periodically, which is not something you could need to do with the FBS, TMS, or onyx sand. Amazonia is also more gravel-like than sand-like in terms of its size.

 

[Dr. Scroggins..]

if you're going for rasboras and tetras, ADA aquasoil creates water conditions and an environment very similar to their natural one.

 

[Crepe]

If you plan on investing so much on light you might as well get the best: Aquasoil amazonia. I use Carib sea floramax (dirt cheap...kinda) it's the exact same thing as eco-comp it's sold by the same company, caribsea.