# Sand vs. gravel



## Ippo456 (Feb 12, 2007)

I just changed my gravel with moon sand.
I've been turning on the light for about 9 hours a day.
The old gravel seemed to be better for the plants than the new moon sand.
I did a water test (everything's normal, including gh & kh), but the nitrite level is 1.3mg/l ..
I know that's a little high & I was wondering if the plants aren't doing well 
because of the high nitrite level or because of the new moon sand.

I changed my gravel to moon sand for aesthetic reason ..
I don't care so much about cleaning up the dirt that's obvious against the white 
sand.
Also, the reason why I have plants is for the fish that I currently keep in the tank (total of 19 guppies etc).

Let me hear about people's experiences with gravel vs. sand regarding a planted tank. Thanks.

ps: I only use Iron additives for growth .. I'm not using any substrates.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

In your case the moon sand would be consider substrate. Any material used on the bottom of the tank is consider substrate.

Your most likely seeing a small spike in nitrites because removing all the gravel caused a bacterial bloom. 

One reason your plants are not doing well is because they need more than iron. You should also be dosing a good micro/macro nutrient.

In order to help you more, it would help knowing the plants you have, lighting/wattage, tank size (gallon/liter) and N03/P04 readings.


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## freydo (Jan 7, 2006)

another reason your plants may not be doing well, is that you've switched to a denser substrate than what your plants were used to. which is why you think they did better in the gravel.

and i agree with trena, you need to provide more than just iron additives for nutrients.


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## nswhite (Aug 25, 2006)

I agree since ou changed your substrate your plants may need to adapt. I'm sure after a couple of weeks the tank will look like it did before. 

In my opinion I didn't like the sand substrate I had problems with algea and I thought that the sand was compacting and not letting the roots grow but since I switched the algea is gone and never came back the plants look better. Good luck


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## Ippo456 (Feb 12, 2007)

*Thanks for replying*

The tank is 29g.
I'll have to double check on the wattage of lighting.

My plants are:
-Hornworts (growing really well)
-Moneyworts (was doing real well in gravel but now dying)
-Cabomba furcata
-Green foxtail (could be frill foxtail .. not sure but they're dying badly)
-Banana plants (they're doing ok, since they're not rooted)
-Red Ludwigia (I think they're the broad leaf kind & not doing too good. It started to grow some white roots when in gravel)

For the soft-stemmed and frill-looking plants (foxtail and Cabomba), I cleaned the roots from old and brown leaves before rooting them into the sand.

I had some Anacharis, which I read up required little light (and little maintainance) but good for new tanks as a nutrient sponge and as an oxygenator.
For some reason, my Anacharis turned brown .. could it be from excessive lighting?


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## freydo (Jan 7, 2006)

as was stated earlier, since you're only providing iron for your plants and you've replaced your gravel with sand, you've removed whatever nutrients was in the gravel.

the lighting you're providing, however much that is, is not causing your plants to die. all that lighting is just going to help promote algae growth. if your lighting level is in the 3wpg range, you need to provide some form of CO2, whether that be DIY, pressurized, or seachem excel.

to provide your plants with the basic nutrients, dose with seachem flourish at minimum. because of the sand that you now have, you've probably reduced the water circulation through the substrate, where your stem plants tend to get most of their nutrients. or use flourish root tabs as an alternative to the liquid form.


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## Ippo456 (Feb 12, 2007)

Lighting is 22 watts fluorescent.


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## freydo (Jan 7, 2006)

you're definitely not providing excessive lighting. you have 0.76 wpg. should at least double your lighting to achieve 1.5 wpg.

this is another reason why your plants are not doing well. from what i can find out, the plants you have:

hornwort: requires very low to very high lighting
moneywort: requires high lighting
combomba furcata: requires high lighting
green foxtail (i think is Ceratophyllum demersum 'Foxtail'): requires very low to very high lighting
banana plants: i don't know the latin name for so no info
red ludwigia (that's not very specific): one species ludwigia repens "rubin" requires low to very high lighting. all others require medium to very high lighting

things to look at doing to hopefully turn things around. increase your lighting to at least double of what you have. start fertilizing with at LEAST seachem flourish and possibly excel.

hope this helps. good luck


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