I am thinking of changing my 4ft tank with the discus in.
Which do you think is better sand or gravel?
As i would like to set up a planted tank, at the moment i have just got gravel and as much as i try it gets quite dirty, probably mainly from the 2 big plecos.
Do you need fertilizer substrate underneath?
And how long would it take to set in the tank?
Well, i had normal pea gravel stuff in at first, then changed to sand. It (the first photo). It made a huge improvement in the way of brightening things up etc. You cant have it too deep, it traps ammonia. When i clean, i take a a rake like thing through the sand first to release any trapped gasses, and then run the hoover over the top of the sand to pick up the rubbish. The dirt is easy to see, so its easy to clean....but its the ease of seeing it which put me off - it always looks messy!
Your other option though is to put in black sand! That would keep down the dirt issue.
You also need to top up the sand every now and again as you will normally hoover some of it up!
I am not sure about planting in sand. I know it can be done, but in my eyes, that would mean using a thicker layer of sand which leads to ammonia build up. I find it difficult enough to plant with the gravel haha.
As for settling, its not bad. It will kick up , but it settles in a couple mins.
from the initial set up though, it takes longer to settle. but if compared to the 'soil' like substrates, it settles much quicker! Sand is heavy, where as the soil i just put in colours the water, so takes ages to settle.
There is an artical on here somewhere about putting in sand, but i think i summarised it above
