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Thread: Soil or sand

  1. #1
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    Soil or sand

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    Is soil a must for planted tank? Or I camp use sand to plant? When time pass will the soil turn muddy?

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    Re: Soil or sand

    It's depends on the type of plant you want. Examples of plants that doesn't need soil are java ferns, anubias. Main rosette plants. Other than that most of the plants need soil or those substrate that are meant for plants.

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    Re: Soil or sand

    Depends on what you want to keep. Some plants prefer sand with another layer mixed under. Also depends on your fish. Some fish prefer sand over gravel etc.
    Soil is generally a no-no as the top layer of aquarium substrate. However, if you read about the natural method by Dana Walstad, you can see she uses soil as the bottom layer, then topped by an inert layer to prevent the soil from mixing with the water.
    You need to read more about the plants/fish you want to keep and decide.

  4. #4
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    Soil or sand

    All soil will turn muddy upon contact with water, and will disintegrate into mud over time.
    Sand on the other hand will not.

    Both are okay for planting, but most of the time a tank with sand needs to be fertilised as it is not pre-fertilised.

    As for soil, I guess you are referring to aquarium soil. Most aquarium soil are compressed form of soil that do not make your water as murky and muddy when first used. Some of them already come pre-fertilised.

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    Re: Soil or sand

    @jemswira Indeed i need to find out more info.
    @Qngwn Yes i am referring to aquarium soil.

  6. #6
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    Re: Soil or sand

    @jemswira Indeed i need to find out more info.
    @Qngwn Yes i am referring to aquarium soil.

  7. #7
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    Soil or sand

    Quote Originally Posted by garylim View Post
    @jemswira Indeed i need to find out more info.
    @Qngwn Yes i am referring to aquarium soil.
    Yes, more information is needed to decide if you want to use soil or sand.

    There are many pros and cons of each, and that will mainly depend what you want to have in your tank.


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    Re: Soil or sand

    It boils down to these when you are choosing your substrate:

    1) Your own preferences
    2) The type of plants you using in your setup
    3) Your budget.

    Usually, for old school setups, just use any available base fertilisers topped with lapis sand on top. There may or may not have alot of the expense difference, using sand setup may be cheaper in the long run (you can just rewash and reuse the sand again) compared to soil. Soil crumbles and turns muddy after long time of usage. Their nutrient properties also depletes after some time.


    Finally, it boils down to what you actually want and prefer to use. Some hobbyist goes with sand, others with soil setup.
    Last edited by diazman; 6th Jan 2013 at 08:15.


    Advice from boss Felix

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    Re: Soil or sand

    What kind of fertilizer do I use? If I keeping low tech plants. Can I still fertilizer If my tank have fish?
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    Soil or sand

    Low tech tank should not need fertilizer else algae will grow to take the extra nutrient. Fish poop should be sufficient as fertilizer. Depending on the type of low tech plants you have you might need to dose some nutrients occasionally.

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    Re: Soil or sand

    Fertilizing low tech tank should only done sometimes or none ultimately. As low tech implies, it contains easy to maintain and low requirement stuffs in it . You can probably dose Seachem Comprehensive once in a while if you still worry about them plants but do not really need to do so. Like bro qnqwn mention, fish poo and daily feeding of the livestock is sufficient.


    Advice from boss Felix

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    Re: Soil or sand

    Hmm which LFS have more variety of sand? I went to C328 I only see black sand.

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    Re: Soil or sand

    Very much depend on what type of plant you intend to plant. Most important, your budget. Can try NA for different type of sand.

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    Re: Soil or sand

    How to go NA? My tank isn't that big only 2ft, so the price is abit exp it ok

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    Re: Soil or sand

    NA is located at blk 1 at Thomson road. Opposite of Thomson medical centre.

  16. #16
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    Re: Soil or sand

    Sand is ok, but you must fertilize it or add some iron/mineral rich substrate such as laterite. If you Google "Dutch Aquascape," you will notice that the Dutch do not use aquarium soil, yet produce stunning aquariums.

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    Re: Soil or sand

    If you're using sand, buy base ferts. There are numbers of base ferts you can choose from. Ranging from JBL, Sera and cheap brands. Put a layer of sand on the bottom. Then place the base ferts and then cover it up with sand again. There are "season" hobbyist who don't use aquasoil. You can use lapis sand, play sand, and soil from the garden. Heck, I have friends who use mud from the another aquarium to start of his new one. I will suggest lapis sand if you're going down that road.

    But if you have the budget, purchase 2 bags of ADA Amazonia and no base ferts or magic fairy dust needed. I'm not certain of pricing so you might want to go down to NA as suggested and ask.

    Good luck.
    VSGenesis
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  18. #18
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    Re: Soil or sand

    Mine no sand just black substrate. Is this possible? As I see many shrimp tanks also done this way at the shops.

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