substrate

[Archie]

does anyone know how amano grows such nice plants in that white sand? i would appreciate any info on this...

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

AHA!

The answer is....he doesn't!
Luis uses the same technique....

Take a <a href="http://www.mynatureaquariums.com/30gal/index.htm" target="_blank">look...</a>

[Cristy Keister]

Why do you think it's hard to grow plants in white sand particularly? My overly planted display tank has silica sand, which is white. I used laterite on the tank bottom and supplement with root tabs.
Cristy

[SCMurphy]

Amano doesn't put any substrate additives under the white sand in those tanks. It is just the sand. The area behind the rocks where the plants are actually located has his typical "grow them out of the tank" substrate.

[Archie]

with the sand i use, i have found plants uproot too easily. the sand also can limit water flow to the roots. i also get erosion near the filter. isn't silica sand very fine? or is it the opposite?

thanks for the help.

[Marsha Finley]

Folks:
When we discuss substrate, we lack a common terminology because the US, British and International standards for particle sizes differ somewhat in their terms and descriptions.
The image below contains the nuances of the mesh sizes, inches and millimeter measurements. I am developing this comparison chart in an attempt to give us illustrations that we can identify and thereby come to common understanding of ‘sand’! Please offer your comments and suggestions as to usefulness, organization, etc.
For our uses, I believe that we generally use what is termed “Very Course Sand” ( 1-2 mm) at the small end of the spectrum, to Granules or Small Gravel and Pebbles ( 3-10 mm). Most substrates contain a range of sizes rather than a specific size like Ecco-Complete which has sizes that I estimate as 1 – 5 mm. Some packages are marked with a specific size, such as Estes # 5 natural in 5 lb bags.
Hope this helps!

<img src="uploads/MarshaFinley/Particles.gif" border="0">

[Cristy Keister]

Looks by that chart that my silica sand is course, since it's about 0.5-1.0 mm. I think one of the best things about it is that it's easy to plant in compared to something like florite. Nothing will stay down for me in florite! I have MTS snails which keep the sand from compacting and causing anaerobic areas. On the down side, it has absolutely no nutritional value for the plants, and the fish would probably be happier with a darker substrate.

[Jamie G]

Can someone give me substrate 101, ive done lots of reading, but still cant make up my mind. I started buying bag of Flourite, but decided against it. I was thinking of using that at the bottom, then sand up top. Any suggestions or successes would be greatly appreciated. <img border="0" src="smileys/image026.gif" border="0">

[Jonathan Kalmes]

I can't give you substrate 101, as I'm sure I don't know enough about the "why" to be able to explain that much. But, I can give you my opinion based on what I've tried.

First, let me just put this right out there... I think that the best substrate for growing plants in an aquarium is Flourite. The only negative things I can thing of about Flourite are:
It has so much iron, a magnetic glass cleaner will get covered in it if you drop it and stands a good chance of then scratching your tank.
New Flourite will cloud your tank in the worst way. I washed mine repeatedly and still had to drain the tank twice to get the silt out. But, it's a one time thing. Once you get it out, you're done. It doesn't come back. Other than those two things, the stuff is downright amazing.

Here's what I've tried before finding Flourite:

Colored aquarium gravel that comes in all those unnatural colors... Pretty close to useless for plants, but it does hold them down till they die.

Sand from Florida lakes... Not bad, but kind of ugly brownish. Clouds water regularly. Compacts alot. Did appear to supply some nutrients to the plants, but nothing to get excited about.

Mud from Florida swamps... Most Florida swamps are black. Use mud from a swamp and you get a black tanks. Not much more to tell, because you can't see your plants with this stuff anyway.

White "play sand" from Home Depot... Compacts eventually, and unfortunately doesn't hold roots down very well until it does compact. Looks good, though. I had a fair amount of success with this by using latterite, peat and Tetra "Dirt in a Box" on the bottom, then putting the play sand on top. Unfortunately, the dirt did eventually make it's way to the top and started making the sand look nasty. No amount of careful vacuuming or anything else I could come up with could stop this. Another problem is that the sand for some reason liked to attract algae. No one particular kind, just alot of all the major algaes. While I'm sure I had something wrong with my water (and no CO2), the algea only grew on the sand and did not grow on the plants. This could have been because it was white and was much brighter than the plants, but I'm not really sure.

Kitty Litter - not bad for growth, but compacts and eventually turns into mush. Plants did quite well until roots got compacted (probably due to clay content). Does cloud water ever time it's disturbed.

Flourite - It rocks! Doesn't compact much at all (even at 5-7 inches deep like mine), doesn't cloud water after initial use, MTS's can burrow in it, does not shred whiskers on cories, doesn't need replenishing. More importantly... Phenomenal plant growth! With or without CO2. I really can't rave about it enough.

But... this is just my opinion. I will probably try some Onyx sand real soon, just because I love the color of the stuff.

[Jamie G]

whats the onyx sand ? i have seen bags of onxyx, much like the flourite..is that it ?