Sand Substrate - Advice Sought

[Pallebahtep]

First post ever - here goes

I have recently moved house and will be setting up a new tropical fresh water tank as the "main feature" in the living room as the wife calls it. I am looking around the 300L mark and the intention is to eventually achieve a medium-heavy planted south american look with corys, tetras and some cichlids.

My question is about the substrate - what do you recommend?

I had a 260L Jewel Vision tank (a tank-sitting favour) for the past two years with sand substrate and heavy planting. It worked very well for the first few months with good plant growth, however it all went downhill gradually. Not having used sand before I saw some things I had not seen before and I wonder if these issues are intrinsic to having such a fine and solid substrate or if they can be prevented.
I noticed two main things:

1) Healthy plants gradually lost roots and died - the hardiest plants became stunted and succumbed to algae
2) When substrate was disturbed, lots of gas bubbles would escape - Methane, sulphide - I don't know.
​

I cleaned the accessible parts of the substrate every 10 days or so and the gas bubbles would form continually.
What can I do to avoid this happening. In a heavy planted set up it is difficult to clean the planted portions.

During this time, although it seemed the tank was way out of sorts, my cichlids bred regularly which left me a bit confused.

After handing back the tank I wowed "Never again sand" but I see now that many of you on this forum recommend it. I loved the visual effect and the behaviour of the corys, so would love to try it again if these issues can be avoided.

Thanks a lot for any advice can offer, or a pointer to an old topic if this has been covered before I have tried to search.

Thanks,
Runi

 

[Dan-CR4]

I was getting a build up of gas in sand, but I just give the sand a little stir, nothing major, every time I do a water change. I also got malaysian trumpet snails that bury them selves in the sand and do a good job of stiring the sand throughout the week. this has stopped most of the build up of any trapped gases.

 

[minnnt]

I have been totally converted to sand. If you want corydoras then sand is probably the best choice.

Kuhli loaches will also be a good choice for sand movement. Stiring works well too. I have never encountered the other issues though.

 

[jacko32]

if your wanting a heavily planted tank i recommend putting a substrate under the sand something like TROPICA which will store and release nutrients to your plants to keep them healthy also get a around 20 malaysian trumpet snails they soon multiply and they do a fantastic job of irrigating the sand i have these and never need to stir the sand at all.

 

[minnnt]

Irrigate the sand?

 

[Ebbo]

Malaysian Trumpet Snails are cheaply available from other members on TFF & on Ebay - they will dig in to the sand as others have said, meaning the bubbles will not get a chance to form under the sand.

 

[CrazyAirborne]

+1 for malayn trumpet snails, ive always had sand, and i started off with 10 MTS and never have any issues, now I have tons of MTS, but never see them cuz they dont come out of the sand much but at night. never had any issues with gases or anything.