Substrate For Planted Tank?

[Ps3Steveo]

Ok every other month lol

 

[Mr.Tan]

The plants in my tank do not get pulled out when doing maintenance... And they're in 2" of sand...

cool, I dont plan on messing with anything once i get it started. I dont know if you can answer the question, but does the sand get super dirty like in saltwater tanks? i mean, i dont know if FW has the same types of bacterias/algaes.. My sand used to get covered in red cyano bacteria and look awful, requiring constant cleaning and sifting to get it out. I dont want to deal witht hat again.. Is black sand better to use compared with white sand for this reason? or can I do a mix of both sand and a fine gravel substrate?

 

[AdamBeat8]

In my planted aquarium i use regular playground sand i bought at the hardware store and don't deal with algae on the sand even with my high watt light. Although, i wish i would have done a dirt/gravel substrate .

 

[tanksalot]

cool, I dont plan on messing with anything once i get it started. I dont know if you can answer the question, but does the sand get super dirty like in saltwater tanks? i mean, i dont know if FW has the same types of bacterias/algaes.. My sand used to get covered in red cyano bacteria and look awful, requiring constant cleaning and sifting to get it out. I dont want to deal witht hat again.. Is black sand better to use compared with white sand for this reason? or can I do a mix of both sand and a fine gravel substrate?

You can get cyanobacteria outbreaks in FW tanks - called "blue green algae" in this case - but I haven't heard that it's any more likely to occur with sand than other substrates. You can read about it here if you scroll down a little.

I've never seen it in any of my tanks, but I always strive to maintain good flow across the substrate and that keeps it pretty much spotless (and poop free!).

 

[Mr.Tan]

cool, I dont plan on messing with anything once i get it started. I dont know if you can answer the question, but does the sand get super dirty like in saltwater tanks? i mean, i dont know if FW has the same types of bacterias/algaes.. My sand used to get covered in red cyano bacteria and look awful, requiring constant cleaning and sifting to get it out. I dont want to deal witht hat again.. Is black sand better to use compared with white sand for this reason? or can I do a mix of both sand and a fine gravel substrate?

You can get cyanobacteria outbreaks in FW tanks - called "blue green algae" in this case - but I haven't heard that it's any more likely to occur with sand than other substrates. You can read about it here if you scroll down a little.

I've never seen it in any of my tanks, but I always strive to maintain good flow across the substrate and that keeps it pretty much spotless (and poop free!).

great! I never ever experience it in the past in any of my FW planted tanks..just with my saltwater tanks is became a big problem and ruined it for me, along with my tank crashing from a snow storm power outage. I just was scared it was a sand thing... I'm going to probably go with a sand/gravel substrate combo. sand on the bottom and some darker gravel on top and try and get them to intertwine and give a natural look. I would do only sand but i think the gravel will give some "girth" to the sand?

I never used powerheads in my FW tanks, but i think I might keep a small 250gph nano korali from my saltwater and use ti for some flow over the substrate area in this planted tank. unless it gives to much flow then I will remove it.



is a darker/black sand provide a more natural look then the light sand? or have anything to do with lighting reflection back up into the tank?

 

[minnnt]

Dark sand and background all the way mate. the plants look more vibrant as do the fish.

 

[Mr.Tan]

Dark sand and background all the way mate. the plants look more vibrant as do the fish.

i already plan on painting the back of the tank black, was something i wanted to do when i was running a saltwater tank but i had to settle for just a sheet of black vinyl because the tank was already filled and i couldn't take it apart to paint it..

I splurged and bought a darker brown colored pea-gravel substrate, thoughht it might look nice? i was at my local pet store and they had a $1 per gallon sale so I bought another 29g tank to use, i was gonna get a 40b but with limited space and wanting to reuse a light I already had laying around i passed on it... the 18" width would have been nice but I also have other projects (my one car) that need finishing and i dint want ot buy another stand and light lol. If black sand looks best i might have to go return the substrate tomorrow and pick up some sand!

 

[mishmash]

Just remember painting is permanent. You can get black backgrounds, and use a non glue adhesive (allows you to peel the backing off again without actually leaving a stuck residue, just wash the glass). That way if you decide to have no background and light from the rear as some like to do, you still have that option. Having painted one tank in the past, i would never do it again personally.

 

[Mr.Tan]

Just remember painting is permanent. You can get black backgrounds, and use a non glue adhesive (allows you to peel the backing off again without actually leaving a stuck residue, just wash the glass). That way if you decide to have no background and light from the rear as some like to do, you still have that option. Having painted one tank in the past, i would never do it again personally.

trust me i know how paint works, i've been painting things for many years . krylon fushion black made for plastic, comes off very easily using a razor blade. I am not sure what I am going to do yet, im tossing some ideas around in my head.


my biggest concern is my substrate, I dont know what I want to do yet and i just can't decide what would work better... this clay cat litter thing as a base under the gravel seems like a good idea but I just don't know what to get at the pet store.

 

[minnnt]

Just use sand.

 

[mishmash]

Just remember painting is permanent. You can get black backgrounds, and use a non glue adhesive (allows you to peel the backing off again without actually leaving a stuck residue, just wash the glass). That way if you decide to have no background and light from the rear as some like to do, you still have that option. Having painted one tank in the past, i would never do it again personally.

trust me i know how paint works, i've been painting things for many years . krylon fushion black made for plastic, comes off very easily using a razor blade. I am not sure what I am going to do yet, im tossing some ideas around in my head.


my biggest concern is my substrate, I dont know what I want to do yet and i just can't decide what would work better... this clay cat litter thing as a base under the gravel seems like a good idea but I just don't know what to get at the pet store.

I didn't mean permanent as in you won't get it off, so wrong adjective there I guess.

Just that its a pain to take it off (in terms of effort, especially if the tank is difficult to move once its set up).

Only you can decide about the substrate.

 

[minnnt]

Black bag...

 

[mishmash]

Black bag...

As opposed to Sainsbury's bag ?