Starting a new 125 gallon aquarium. I want a sandy bottom for aesthetics and corys, buy want some plants. I have seen videos where some peope put a bottom layer of plant friendly substrate capped by a couple of inches of sand. Others put the nutrient rich under substrate in media bags with sand on top. I don't want the substrate to mix to lose the all sand appearance and think over time this is inevitable, but not sure the plant roots with penetrate the media bags if I go that rout. Does anyone have experience with this? Thank you!
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preventing lower substrate from mixing with top sand
- Thread starter Werwa
- Start date
DioramaDieHard
New Member
This is an interesting question. Sand actually does has this kind of action due to its small grain size that brings organic beneath it to the top, which can cause it to become dirty. This aids the plant roots but is not great for aesthetic appeal. You could suck out the top layer of sand every month and add a new layer of clean sand to maintain the nice appearance. I do not think plant roots will be able to group through media bags since they are quite tough but it would still improve nutrition. One thing you could try is restricting the nutrient areas, such as placing cut out plastic cups as dividers at the bottom which you fill with nutrient substrate and then put sand over the top. The nutrients will act as a depot mix sufficiently for the plants and nutrients will diffuse throughout the substrate layer anyway. In fact, as long as the media bag is relatively porous, the roots do not have to enter it to receive nutrients, they just have to grow around that area. or along it. The roots can be very fine haired.
I have no experience and I am no expert but I am looking in to this as well. From what I can see there are 3 options. Have a base layer of aqua soil with decorative sand on top. This over time will probably mix. Put aqua soil in mesh bags as you have stated and cover with sand. This apparently works fine and the plant roots will penetrate the bags. The final option is to have separate areas for planting and sandy bottom with a boundary of rocks or similar between. I am tending towards the final option at the moment. Please let us know what you decide and how you get on. I have a month or 2, at least, before I get to that stage.
Hi all,
Cheers Darrel
There is a fourth option, which is to <"just have sand"> and feed the water column.
Cheers Darrel
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Thank you all for replying. I have some time before I set up, but I may just go with sand and java ferns and anubias on drift wood and feed the water column. I just hope I don't get the urge to add other plants, but may just add plant tabs. I absolutey don't want the sand to mix with a darker substrate.
Superpuma1
Member
What’s wrong with buying a sheet of fine plastic netting and placing that over the soil / planting substrate and then putting the sand on top of it?
I’ve done this in the past without issue and am about to do it again….
I’ve done this in the past without issue and am about to do it again….
simon_the_plant_nerd
Member
I divided my tank into two halves. The rear has a layer of aqua soil capped with sand, the front is just sand alone. This is separated by a strip of Perspex to stop mixing. I planned to plant only the rear of the tank but quickly started running out of space and planted the front too.
My findings are that plants will grow in just sand alone. I have got plants putting out new leaves and looking healthy in the front of the tank. I also have no problems with plants at the back of the tank and my epiphytes on wood and rocks. I feed the water column but only potassium and trace as nitrates are taken care of by my livestock and phosphates are in my tap water.
My other findings are that, regardless of the separation, the aqua soil does still spread around the tank thanks to our Bristlenose plec and burrowing snails. I find it’s less of a problem with my dense planting but on the few open areas of sand, it does tend to stick out like a sore thumb.
If I was starting an experiment again, I’d just do sand and not bother with the aqua soil. I dont know if that would be as successful but I’d be open to trying it.
My findings are that plants will grow in just sand alone. I have got plants putting out new leaves and looking healthy in the front of the tank. I also have no problems with plants at the back of the tank and my epiphytes on wood and rocks. I feed the water column but only potassium and trace as nitrates are taken care of by my livestock and phosphates are in my tap water.
My other findings are that, regardless of the separation, the aqua soil does still spread around the tank thanks to our Bristlenose plec and burrowing snails. I find it’s less of a problem with my dense planting but on the few open areas of sand, it does tend to stick out like a sore thumb.
If I was starting an experiment again, I’d just do sand and not bother with the aqua soil. I dont know if that would be as successful but I’d be open to trying it.
Great suggestion!
Did you use plant tabs in the sand?
I used a plastic netting separating the substrate layers in a previous setup and I didn't like it. Roots would cross the netting and it was very hard to uproot them, and sometimes it would make an even larger mess if they were strong enough to pull the netting with them. I'm not sure if it was related, but I also had a lot of issues with trapped gas in that setup.
simon_the_plant_nerd
Member
No. Straight into the sand.
