Silly Question about Substrate

hi everyone, i have some kiddies playsand left over from my marine setup can i use this as substrate, more important will plants grow in it.

 

Yes and Yes

And there is no such thing as a stupid question

 

Just make sure you rinse the hell out of it to remove the salt.

 

Ditto - rinse, rinse, rinse, soak, soak, soak and then rinse some more.

 

thanks very much for the replies makes me happy to know this. @ slagter it doesnt have any salt its spare sand still in the bag, but will still wash it like craze

oh and sorry can i plant direct into the sand plus do i need to add anything else to the substrate

 

Ok, no salt, but yes, you should still give it a good rinse before adding to the tank.

Yes, you would plant directly into the substrate. Remove the plants from their little pots, remove all of the rock wool (yellow fibers) and then just pop them into the sand. Sometimes you will find that the plants with well developed root systems will be quite difficult to get into the sand, but you can just chop those roots off. Leave about 2cm of the roots on the plants and then pop them into the sand.

What plants were you thinking of?

You could add some stuff to the substrate if you are going to be adding plants that are heavy root feeders like Swords and such. You could add a bit of rose shrub mix under your sand. But also make sure you get some Malaysian Trumpet Snails. They will stir the substrate, by burrowing into it, not allowing it to go toxic. Or you could try and find some Seachem Flourite. It is an iron rich substrate a few of the people on the forums use. Good stuff. I know it is not available at the moment, but there is a shipment arriving soon. It is apparently stuck out at sea due to bad weather.

 

awesome, i have no idea what plants i wanna put in, the names are all to hectic for me to remember. i do however wana do a moss wall at the back of the tank also really like the tanks that have like a grass bottom, but i will add plants slowly and pick stuff that i like and hopefully not too hard to take care of.

 

A good thread to go and have a look at around here is the one about plants sold in pet shops that are terrestrial plants and not aquatic plants. A lot of people go to the LFS (Local Fish Store) and buy what looks nice. Then the plants die. It's annoying to say the least.

Also, what lighting are you going to have and what size is the tank?

http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=1289

 

I might be mistaken here, but isn't play sand basically a fine silica? That would mean its inert or has very little nutritional value

 

You are quite correct.. it isn't as "clinically" pure as silica sand, but basically the same stuff. A lot of companies also ADD salt to play-pen sand as the innitial dose as an added sales opportunity. Usually a person would need to add salt to play-pen sand every 6 months or so to get rid of nasties... depending on how often your children play in the sand.. and abviously, how much garden sand gets added into the sand-pit during play time

 

will definately read alot before getting anything. my first attempt at a planted tank. the tank is a 6 foot tank i need to give away my silver dollars and decons before i can setup for the planted tank. for lights i have 6 x 39 watt t5's but was thinking of getting some CFL bulbs coz im sure i would need the lower kelvin rated bulbs for better growth. i have also read up abt making a little diy reactor for some C02 using sugar n yeast. gonna make sure i do this rite.

 

whats more annoying is when an LFS told me yesterday that their ACORUS is somehow magically different from its own species, as this one has been specially acclimatized to by fully submerged and grown... what a bucket of horsedung... i told him i work at a nursery, he's trying to sell me our own friggin stock plants for my aquarium. Pffft its a bog plant, it can take wet feet, but shouldn't be fully submerged...

 

Just get different Kelvin rated tubes, possibly mix 2 Sylvania GroLux, 2 Daylights and 2 Skywhite. 6X39w isn't a lot of light over a 6ft so you may have to stick to lower light plants. Have you staggered 3 tubes on each side of the tank?

 

they are currently not over the tank as the tank is a comunity tank at the moment with no plants. will change all this over the next few weeks. the lights are actually in a light unit so i cant stagger them, thats why im thinkin of going with the CFL bulbs as i wouldnt need to get ballasts etc and from all the reading iv done they seem to be doing the trick with plant growth

 

LOL! Viva Los HorseDung!

The LFS are crawling with it...