AliSab
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2017
- Messages
- 104
TL;DR at the bottom.
I have a moderately planted 30 gallon with an aquaclear 50 filter, a heater, a bubbler, and a homemade double light. The plants have so far been doing well, growing so quickly that I am cutting them back almost weekly now.
The tank is dosed daily with seachem excel, nitrogen (Monday and Thursday), and flourish (Tuesday and Friday). No CO2 setup and no plans for one in the near future as my current setup seems to doing swell.
Lately I have been wondering about the substrate, which has been gravel since day one. I am considering swapping it out for a mixture of flourite sand and dark, but am not quite sure yet about it. One thing holding me back is the maintenance of mostly sand vs all gravel, but other sites I've checked have users that say once they switched to sand they never thought of going any other way.
I'm hesitant because I don't want to uproot everything in my tank and go through the process and expense of changing the substrate to find out there's nothing special about using sand. Is it easier to keep clean? How does one clean it anyway? Do plants do better with it? Will I need to use tabs or special fertiliser on top of what I'm dosing the tank with?
The other reason I'm considering sand is because I have livestock as well, and I've read that bottom feeders tend to do better in sand than gravel. I have four cories that all came healthy appx 6 months ago, and now within the last month have lost all their barbels. The gravel is not sharp or jagged, and they all seemed to do fine until now. Some sites shave suggested that unclean gravel can cause erosion and that sand is better for some bottom swimmers. I was thinking of changing the cories out for dwarf loaches, which I believe like to burrow in the substrate.
For reference, my plants are:
Anubias (two varieties)
Ambulia
Hygro corymbosa
And one crypt of unknown species
All of thrived and spread.
My livestock are:
1 rubber lip pleco,
4 false julii cory cats
3 (at least...) oto cats
5 celestial pearl danio
7 rummy nose tetra
TL;DR
So to sum up, my questions are:
Should I change my gravel substrate to a flourite sand/dark mix?
What are the benefits of sand to both my plants and live stock? What are the downsides?
Will I have to use tabs or fertiliser on top of seachem excel, flourish, and nitrogen?
How do I keep the sand clean after changing it? What is the maintenance for sand like? (ie- I vacuum the gravel to get rid of debris, what the heckle do I do for sand??)
Cheers
I have a moderately planted 30 gallon with an aquaclear 50 filter, a heater, a bubbler, and a homemade double light. The plants have so far been doing well, growing so quickly that I am cutting them back almost weekly now.
The tank is dosed daily with seachem excel, nitrogen (Monday and Thursday), and flourish (Tuesday and Friday). No CO2 setup and no plans for one in the near future as my current setup seems to doing swell.
Lately I have been wondering about the substrate, which has been gravel since day one. I am considering swapping it out for a mixture of flourite sand and dark, but am not quite sure yet about it. One thing holding me back is the maintenance of mostly sand vs all gravel, but other sites I've checked have users that say once they switched to sand they never thought of going any other way.
I'm hesitant because I don't want to uproot everything in my tank and go through the process and expense of changing the substrate to find out there's nothing special about using sand. Is it easier to keep clean? How does one clean it anyway? Do plants do better with it? Will I need to use tabs or special fertiliser on top of what I'm dosing the tank with?
The other reason I'm considering sand is because I have livestock as well, and I've read that bottom feeders tend to do better in sand than gravel. I have four cories that all came healthy appx 6 months ago, and now within the last month have lost all their barbels. The gravel is not sharp or jagged, and they all seemed to do fine until now. Some sites shave suggested that unclean gravel can cause erosion and that sand is better for some bottom swimmers. I was thinking of changing the cories out for dwarf loaches, which I believe like to burrow in the substrate.
For reference, my plants are:
Anubias (two varieties)
Ambulia
Hygro corymbosa
And one crypt of unknown species
All of thrived and spread.
My livestock are:
1 rubber lip pleco,
4 false julii cory cats
3 (at least...) oto cats
5 celestial pearl danio
7 rummy nose tetra
TL;DR
So to sum up, my questions are:
Should I change my gravel substrate to a flourite sand/dark mix?
What are the benefits of sand to both my plants and live stock? What are the downsides?
Will I have to use tabs or fertiliser on top of seachem excel, flourish, and nitrogen?
How do I keep the sand clean after changing it? What is the maintenance for sand like? (ie- I vacuum the gravel to get rid of debris, what the heckle do I do for sand??)
Cheers