Cosmetic sand on top of soil

[Mikeba]

Hi all!

I was wondering ... what I see more and more these days is that people just poor cosmetic sand on top of their soil, instead of replacing the soil with sand in that part of the scape (for creating a sand road for example).

Aren't you going to have a mixup of sand/soil a lot quicker this way? Or maybe it doesn't matter because you have to syphon and add new sand anyway from time to time?

Maybe a silly questions, but I'm still interested in what you guys think

 

[MrHidley]

If you're intending to grow plants, you'd rather have soil under the sand as sand is inert so doesn't retain nutrients.

 

[Mikeba]

It's actually just for creating a sand road/path, not for planting.

 

[MrHidley]

In my experience it's very hard to keep a path tidy even if it's gravel/sand all the way to the bottom.

 

[PARAGUAY]

I just made a mess,a couple of weeks ago after trimming in a 60l tank with a hood one amazon sword was hitting the lid,I took off the biggest leaves replanted in a small tank with verve aquatic compost with a few plantlets and hygro poly trimmings I then capped off the substrate with playsand.The compost keeps finding its way above the sand ,think coarser sand with a soil retainer with hindsight