What do you think if I added some sand?

[PauloSilva]

My goal is to keep a planted tank. Not too many plants but enough for a natural effect. Now I currently have gravel pictured below. I got it for free so no complaints. What do you guys think if I mixed this gravel with some pool sand? If I had to I would take the gravel out. BTW my tank is 3rd day of cycling.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

it would probably look good at first, but over time the sand would work its way to the bottom and the gravel to the top seperating it i believe based on what i read off of here. Just an FYI, you don't need to have sand to do a planted tank, my gravel looks just like that and the plants do fine. If you are going for the sand look, i would take the gravel out completely to keep a cleaner look, but that is just my opinon

 

[JodiMartin2003]

jcarlilesiu, what kind of plants do you have in your tank? I am looking into plants for mine as well. I need plants that do well in little light and dont need special care.

 

[BrianNY]

FWIW, there are plenty of threads on low light planted tanks in the planted tank section.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

just some ideas, before i had my current tank, i had a low light tank. I was successful in keeping an ozelot sword, vals, java moss, sunset hygro, dwarf sag... other things that i tried to put in there but lost were chain sword, and some sort of grass. I didn't do any dosing and had no CO2, and growth was steady but slow. A little research especially here

www.plantgeeks.com

is very helpful. Best of luck.

 

[Primetime]

If you want a planted sand tank, do what I've been successfully doing with 4 different tanks (sizes: 20 Gallon Long, 10 Gallon, 2 Gallon, .5 Gallon), and put topsoil on the bottom and sand on the top. The layers will start mixing due to planting and what not, but a little bit of topsoil on the top wont cause an ammonia spike, and its nothing a siphon cant clean!

When adding water, you should put a plate or tray and slowly pour the water on it. This way the layers wont mix. Same goes for water changes. Slow and steady.

Also, if you mixed sand with gravel, you wouldnt be able to siphon the gravel without losing most of the sand