sjlchgo

I want to start a 55 gal community tank. I plan to have Clown Loaches and cory's in the tank and thought sand would be nice for them. I also want live plants. I've read posts where people say that sand is fine for growing plants. My questions are:
Do you add anything other than sand(i.e- Seachems Flourite or gravel)?

How well does sand do as far as the biological factors that substrates provide?

Butterfly

When I do a sand tank I do a lot of plants attached to rocks. 75G re-done
Crypts, hygrophilia polysperma, and wisteria all seem to grow well in sand without any additives.
With sand if you don't want to be stirring/disturbing the substrate once a week you need some Malaysian Trumpet snails to do it for you so anerobic pockets of gas don't form. Pool filter sand is the best sand to use because you don't have to rinse it (wahoo).
As you probably know Clown Loaches are happier in groups of three or more and will need a bigger tank in the future. I had two together for four years In the 75g and they did well (the third one kept dieing )I didn't have any problem with them eating my plants but once in a while they did dig one up to get at a snail. They also dug up plant tabs once(guess they thought I was hiding yummies for them ) Since they need many caves and hiding/sleeping places putting plants on rocks was perfect.
Carol

sjlchgo

Thanks for the response Carol. How do you attach them to the rocks or do you just pile the rocks around the bases of the plants?

Barbrella

I found the easiest way to attach Java fern and anubias to my driftwood and rocks is with elastic bands.

I wrap the elastics around the part of the wood etc that I want to put the plants on, then just tuck the roots under the elastic.

Once the plants grow unto the surface I cut and remove the elastics.

Gamer

That's a good idea to use plants that can be attached to rocks or driftwood. I plan to do that.

I for one however don't have the courage to keep live plants down in the sand itself so what I am going to do is have my tank half gravel in the back and half sand in the front. And use some rock to seperate the two substrates.

Here is where I got the idea and if done right it can look beautiful and you can have the best of both worlds being able to keep whatever plants you want AND having a sand area:

http://www.mynatureaquariums.com/howto/howto.html

sjlchgo

That's a really nice looking set up.

Gamer

Yeah it really is. If you ever decide to do a gravel and sand tank just remember to make a good barrier to seperate the two or else the sand will eventually sink down into the gravel...or something like that. I plan to use slate rock but I hear plexi-glass works good aswell.

lilswimmer

Do you have to use malaysian trumpet snails to break up the anerobic pockets or will any snails do? I'm getting a dwarf puffer and was going to include pond snails for him to eat. Would they do the trick?