sand for feeding area

[lado]

Wonder what kind of sand (sizewise) is used for feeding saction of tank.Something like grain of salt or?

[suisoman2]

I used to have a problem in my planted tank . the tank was done in gravel and 100% of the surface was planted. All the discus poo and foodcrumbs where spoiling the water quality. waste build up in the gravel and in low current areas between tight planted groups.
So I janked plants out about 20 % in each corner, scooped the gravel out and replaced it with the whitest and finest PH neutral sand I could find.

As a result I have now a tank with 60 % gravel for plants and 40% open sand like a riverbed where I feed the fish. I even adjusted the waterflow to keep crumbs on the sand.

Most positive experience: Less algae, corydoras continuously clean the sand and they seem to love those whiskers in the fine sand. They bulldose around and sand is sprayed out of their gill plates. I even think this must be natural to them. ( like goatfish on a reef ) .
Disadvantage: burrowing snails have proliferated in this sand. Now I just sift them out every two weeks.

You ll here many opinions, too coarse, too small, most of that has to do with 2 things:
feeding requirements of plants and preventing oxygen poor processes near your watercolumn.
You can use fine sand but you need to keep it clean manually to avoid rotting. sifting through it with a kitchen strainer does the trick for me.
( going for 6 months strong on this white sand. )

suisoman Dirk