New Planted + Sand Tank > Gravel And Fake!

[twin54]

Well after looking at countless pictures and drooling over how nice it looked and how the fish seem to trully love a tank that was "alive" over just water with decorations I decided it was time to give it a try and make my fish a bit more happy!

Since I'm not sure if I have a green thumb for aquatic plants...or would that be a turquoise thumb??? I decided to try it out in my 20 gal before doing the swap in my larget tank! Comments sugestions etc all welcome!

**Befre pic with the fake plants and gravel**

This was listed as " Echino Amazonicus"

This was listed as " Cryptocoryme WendtII"

And last but not least "Hygrophila Rosanervis"

Put them all togethere and what do you get....

Please excuse the dead elaves on the filter took this pic as I woke up this morning and just planted the tank last night. Water is a bit cloudy and its time to do a small water change and vacume as today is sunday ...aka "clean up the tanks day"

 

[bagu]

looks amazing!

wow! i cant wait to change mine to sand

 

[~T~]

Looks not bad, I hate white sand though.

 

[twin54]

Looks not bad, I hate white sand though.

though you cant tell in that pic the sand is more of a beige (dont rember how to spell it) than a white

I would have lived a nice redigh brown sand to go with the rocks but alas this is one battle I decided to let the wife win as she loved the lighter sand look!

 

[oliesminis]

loolks great. the fish will really love it, especially the cories/bottom dwellers i can see.

 

[twin54]

loolks great. the fish will really love it, especially the cories/bottom dwellers i can see.

Thanks However thoes arent cories got 4 YOYO loaches! Love them there a hoot to watch...once they dont see me anymore and stop hiding under the rocks they come out and turn into aquatic jesters! Some of the games they play with eachother are hilarious!!

 

[21rm]

hey there, tank looks great.
Ive just recently switched to sand as well, same colour as yours

and sum info on the plants, not sure bout the middle one, but i have the other two. The third pic u showed, that goes soooo fast and soo easily. Definately don't need turquoise fingers for that lol

 

[razer121]

see i had sand constanly blooming in my tank so had to change to gravel i really liked the sand to, your tank looks really nice aswell

 

[~T~]

see i had sand constanly blooming in my tank so had to change to gravel i really liked the sand to, your tank looks really nice aswell

Yeh I always find that with the really fine stuff too.

 

[T1KARMANN]

Looks not bad, I hate white sand though.

the sand looks 100 x better than the nasty gravel why anyone puts coloured gravel in the tank is beyond me

 

[twin54]

Looks not bad, I hate white sand though.

the sand looks 100 x better than the nasty gravel why anyone puts coloured gravel in the tank is beyond me

Thank you all for the compliments I'm really happy so far with it. However it looks liek im getting a small bacterial bloom woke up today and noticed the tell tell signs of the white cloud! Grrr guess I didnt read enough but makes sence as live plants probably have some effect on the bioload...and after the transplantaion into the tank they have lost a couple leaves cloging up the filter and I guess the dead plants are contributing to the cloudyness!

Guess I stick to the old rules of clean the filter, clean up any loose leaves and do small water changes regularly till it all settles down again!

 

[~T~]

Looks not bad, I hate white sand though.

the sand looks 100 x better than the nasty gravel why anyone puts coloured gravel in the tank is beyond me

Thank you all for the compliments I'm really happy so far with it. However it looks liek im getting a small bacterial bloom woke up today and noticed the tell tell signs of the white cloud! Grrr guess I didnt read enough but makes sence as live plants probably have some effect on the bioload...and after the transplantaion into the tank they have lost a couple leaves cloging up the filter and I guess the dead plants are contributing to the cloudyness!

Guess I stick to the old rules of clean the filter, clean up any loose leaves and do small water changes regularly till it all settles down again!

TBH its a sand thing, I think its to do with the how fibe the grain is. Whenever I've used playsand or similar its always ended up in disaster with constant cloudyness and horrible stinking gas pockets. Seems to be a problem with anything more than an inch of fine sand.

 

[twin54]

Looks not bad, I hate white sand though.

the sand looks 100 x better than the nasty gravel why anyone puts coloured gravel in the tank is beyond me

Thank you all for the compliments I'm really happy so far with it. However it looks liek im getting a small bacterial bloom woke up today and noticed the tell tell signs of the white cloud! Grrr guess I didnt read enough but makes sence as live plants probably have some effect on the bioload...and after the transplantaion into the tank they have lost a couple leaves cloging up the filter and I guess the dead plants are contributing to the cloudyness!

Guess I stick to the old rules of clean the filter, clean up any loose leaves and do small water changes regularly till it all settles down again!

TBH its a sand thing, I think its to do with the how fibe the grain is. Whenever I've used playsand or similar its always ended up in disaster with constant cloudyness and horrible stinking gas pockets. Seems to be a problem with anything more than an inch of fine sand.

What it wierd is that the plants came some 3 weeks after the sand...in the begining I had hte reg cloudy water look and I suspect a small bacterial bloom. However after about 3 days it was crystal clear! Wish I had taken pictures of it then However after planting my live plants the water got cloudy. I brushed it off to stiring up the sand too much but now its been about a week and it just wont clear up at all Guess I will go to the plant section and ask for soem help from the gurus over there!

However all of the comments are much apreciated!

 

[DarkEntity]

Id never ever recommend anyone uses playsand, if you want sand get Caribsea moonsand whether it be white or black, ive never had an issue with it like i did with the cheap playsand.

 

[twin54]

Id never ever recommend anyone uses playsand, if you want sand get Caribsea moonsand whether it be white or black, ive never had an issue with it like i did with the cheap playsand.

It was bagged as "aquarium sand" at Big Al's here in Canada. I didnt buy it at wal mart or anything like that so not sure why many are calling it play sand