Aquascape with sand

nesas

nesas

AC Members
Dec 11, 2007
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I'm looking to create an aquascape with sand - something like this:


4-23_front.JPG


http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_2/cav2i6/planted_aquascaping/planted_aquascaping.htm

Have any of you done something similar to this? How high in maintanace is a setup like this for you? Are you happy with it?

Looking for any tips and/or suggestions. Thanks.



Eventually it turns out into something like this (it needs foreground trimmed):

6-25_front.JPG
 
i love it its beautiful
 
Sand contains no nutrients in it, which gives you an additional challenge. The first picture you see has some kind of fertilizer rich soil where the plants are and regular sand down the middle. I grow my plants in regular sand, so it's possible, but to keep it that clean is difficult. Light color sand grows algae. You'll have to fert dose and CO2 inject to keep things pristine.
 
Yeah, I heard that in Japan they use cardboard in setups to separate the sand from fluorite. In this setup, if you follow the link included you will see the guy uses some kind of plastic to separate fluorite and sand - so they don't mix.

He grows plants over nutrient rich soil on sides, and the sand is supposed to stay as a path or underwater river rather to give the scape depth.

It is by separating the two that you can limit plant propagation throughout the tank, and I frankly like the idea. Do you think I'd still have to dose with fert?

I got commercial CO2 and currently working on increasing the lighting.

I'm more worried for filtration, sand changing color, whole thing flying all over the place (mixing sand with fluorite), and whole thing making it hard to clean tank...

Also, I'd like to cover the fluorite on sides with sand as well so that black fluorite doesn't show, but I think that eventually it will level out, it will not stay there to make a hill like structure on the sides, it might even end up exposing the fluorite on back sides which I'm trying to avoid. I'm guessing that this is the reason he's got rocks there to hold stuff in place a bit.
 
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Yes, you will have to dose with ferts. Once you bump up the lights, your ferts will be out of balance as fish bioload doesn't provide it all. With an imbalance of ferts, you're going to get algae. I've never done dry ferts before, but I believe that is the way to go so you're not paying for water, like with Flourish products.

http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com/store/aquaticplantfood.php

This is place to get dry ferts from that a lot of fish keepers use.

As far as making a mess during cleanings, you might want to get a smaller gravel vac for the sand and just go slowly. Most heavily planted tanks you don't need to gravel vac. Just water changes suffice. Pick up a little pond pump from Home Depot if you need to put water back into the tank without make a mess or too much splash.
 
http://www.mynatureaquariums.com/howto/howto.html

The two substrate divide is somewhat difficult to maintain because it requires you to touch your tank as little as possible once it is set up. This means that people who are prone to uprooting and replanting will end up mixing the substrate. Best practice is to have all your plants planted in the beginning and just trim without uprooting. Use rocks and driftwood to help maintain the boundary and shape of the planted area.

Cleaning the substrates is done without gravel vacuuming. Use a turkey baster to kick up detritus over the sand and suck it it without digging the vac into the sand, you don't need to gravel vac the planted areas.

All rules of a planted tank applies. If you have a high light setup you will need to add ferts.
 
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