selection of substrate

[Jason.59]

Hi everyone,
I am setting up a low tech planted tank and i am not sure what type of substrate to use in my aquarium.
According to my research viable options are:
-play sand
-pool filter sand
-and CaribSea® FloraMax™ Planted Aquarium Substrate
So far i want to stick with the pool filter sand i was wondering if i can mix a few pounds of Caribsea Flora Max with the pool filter sand; would that give me healthier plants?

I am not planning on using a CO2 tank
My aquarium is a 46 gallon bow-front


I would appreciate any advice or experiences you have had for a low planted tank and what would be the best choice

Thank you
Jason

[lipadj46]

Do not ever use play sand unless you want a rotten mess in the bottom of your tank. Pool filter sand is OK but even that will go anaerobic if you don't stir it. I had roots rotting in my tank with PFS. If you mix do a sand layer on top of your planted substrate but there really is no point to that unless you want to save money. For low tech I like seachem's flourite with root tabs but the flora max is good too and is mineralized already (you will need to fertilize eventually). The best choice for a low tech tank is mineralized top soil with a sand cap or one of the "aqua soils" by ADA. Those are not for the beginner though especially with discus

[Chicago Discus]

It depends on what size discus you want to put in the tank. if you want adults then I have used pool sand with good results. If you want juveniles than you need to go bare bottom until you grow them out a bit maybe 4 inches or so.......good luck .......Josie

[Melissa]

I love play sand from Home Depot :P have used it many many times in different tanks and I like the look of it. Not messy, food and debris collects on top of it for easy clean up... And you can't beat a 50lb bag of the stuff for like 6.99 or whatever it was LOL

[KV_Discus]

used play sand for all of mine and no issue as well

[lipadj46]

play sand is a mess, you lose half of it while rinsing and then it is so fine that it goes aerobic fast. you will get those black stinky pockets forming, those are bad. nasty stuff. for the same cost pfs has a large consistent grain and is clean you don't lose any while rinsing

[Melissa]

Sheesh lipadj- sounds like you've dealt with play sand from hell LOL

I don't think the fineness of the sand has to do with how quickly it goes aerobic. Maybe you laid it too thick?

I never had trouble losing half of it during rinsing... Maybe you really did get your hands on some bad sand eh?

[bugman2494]

I would recommend you use pool filter sand in conjunction with the CaribSea® FloraMax substrate. What I do is use the CaribSea® FloraMax substrate on the bottom and cap it off with the filter sand. I believe the play sand may get a little messy and also it is very light which means when you vaccuum, you will be sucking up the sand as well.

What I have done is used laterite/topsoil/fertiliser tabs and capped it off with pool filter sand and have had much success.

[Mannie Bothans]

Laterite and topsoil with discus? (Or do you mean the root tabs contain laterite and topsoil?)

[bugman2494]

Laterite and topsoil with discus? (Or do you mean the root tabs contain laterite and topsoil?)

I mixed laterite and top soil together and then added fertiliser tabs to make the nutrient rich substrate. Here is a link to the tank with this substrate:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?93036-Tranquility

[BoiseDiscusGuy]

I've seen the same bad results from the use of play sand. A terrible mucky mess...If you've used it with no problems I consider you fortunate. Pool sand is much cleaner and really isn't much more expensive than the play sand. IMO, I would definitely pay the extra $3.00 and get the pool sand...Just sayin...

[Mannie Bothans]

I haven't ever used Flora Max, but it looks like just regular flourite, which is inert, but is great at storing plant nutrients... if you dose your own fertilizer into the substrate.

I once capped flourite with sand. It looked nice for a few days and then the fish uprooted the plants and the two layers got all mixed up and wasn't nearly as pretty.

More options are discussed here:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?93075-potted-plants-with-flourite-and-or-sand&p=839069&viewfull=1#post839069

I do know that putting heavy sand on light florite makes both very hard to keep clean.