What Type Of Soil Under Sand?

[mata]

Hi all, very new at all this, been in other sections of the forum discussing most things, but I'm getting to the point I will be getting fully started with my fishless cycle next week.

My question is... I am going to use play sand as a substrate, hope to have a few easy low tech plants, low maintenance with no additives of c02 etc. What should I have below the sand, soil of some sort? Compost? Or what? Since I live on a small Island with a Garden centre/LFS I don't have many options locally.

Thanks in advance.

 

[kaivalagi]

Most people use just sand...

Some use cat litter as a base which is soaked in ferts first, you can also put a thin foam (porous) layer on top of that, then the sand...

If you're going for low tech I would be inclined to just use sand, it's much easier, you wont find the sand getting mixed up with something else either.

I have just sand and it's good from what I can tell so far...I'm still new to sand myself though, after switching from gravel, so can't give you my experiences of plant growth etc yet.

 

[Bobtastic]

You'll probably not need any other substrate for a low tech tank, but you could get some capsuls or granuals that you could mix into the sand. The names escape me atm tho...

If you are wanting to stick with some nutrient rich substrates there are ADA Aquasoil, Tropica Plant substrate, Naturesoil and I think JBL do one too. There are a couple of ppl on here that have used clay based cat litter with success too.

 

[mata]

Nice one thanks for that, will just go for sand only, its on the way anyway so I guess something less to buy aswell