Can't Decide Need Some Advice

[littlenemo]

I have black gravel at the moment and my plant don't like it the wont stay planted. So I'm thinking of breaking my tank down and putting play sand in.
Is sand better what's the pros and cons of the two?

 

[fluttermoth]

What kind of catfish do you have?

 

[lock77]

I switched to play sand and it lasted about a week before I changed back. Have you considered silica sand, play sand looks dirty and turns grey if not stirred up regularly. I have looked at your tank and think it is great, could you not just add another layer of black gravel to help weigh the plants down. After all you didn't win tank of the month for nothing!

 

[This Old Spouse]

If you want to go for a very natural looking tank, play sand is great, so long as you rinse it, rinse it, and rinse it some more before you put it in the tank. My plants love it.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

I gather that playsand is quite light and fluffy....never used it myself though

 

[fluttermoth]

I have playsand in most of my tanks, and really like it. It's much better for any fish that have whiskers/barbels, like corydoras and loaches. I don't find it hard to clean.

On the other hand, plants will float out of both gravel and sand, until they're rooted, so whichever substrate you have, just heap some larger pebbles round the bases for a month or two.

 

[Lufbramatt]

Don't know how long you have to leave it but I've had playsand in my tanks for over a year now and never had any grey/black areas under rocks etc.

 

[Scales9]

I have both gravel and sand in my tank, gravel at the back is blue and the play sand at the front ( so it looks like a beach) the plants float up out of both when I vac so am still forever replanting not sure there is a way round that at all until the plants grow strong enough roots.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I gather that playsand is quite light and fluffy....never used it myself though

It's really not light and fluffy at all, but heavy and dense. That's why all the detritus just sits on top and doesn't get below the surface ... easy to clean.

I did use sand-blasting sand in a tank and it showed every speck of gunk in there. When I switched to play sand it looked much better.

 

[OldMan47]

I am going To be a bit unpopular here. In my opinion there is no such thing as an ideal substrate. On the contrary, you must make the best use of whatever substrate you have. I use mostly a fine gravel/course sand in my tanks and never have a problem with my tanks. There is nothing at all magic about my substrate. It is simply that I take the effort to make sure that ALL plants are properly anchored and I never assume that anything is ideal. that doers mean that when I find a plant floating free, I assume it is my own fault and I take measures necessary to anchor it properly. I am sure that there may be some substrate that would not put me in that position but I have yet to discover it.

 

[littlenemo]

good point old man. i think i may just add some more black fine gravel. most of my plants are ok. just odd one that comes up/

 

[Tizer]

kitty litter

 

[This Old Spouse]

Tizer, please don't just throw that out there without qualifying it.

 

[Juggler75]

Yeah tizer, when I used kitty litter I could never get the paper pellets to sink...

Fullers earth capped with playsand has worked out well but I'm still thinking of changing to a dirt based substrate

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Doesn't somebody on this site suggest that it can be a good idea to give plants that go in the substrate (rather than getting attached to wood or rocks) some time to establish their roots in a new tank before adding fish?