# Are There Any Bottom Feeder Friendly Plant Substrates? Fine-grained and smooth?



## Akeath (Mar 7, 2011)

Does anyone know if there are any nutrient-rich substrates that are sand and very smooth that would work for bottom feeders? 

The plants I intend to keep rooted are Water Sprite, Hornwort, Bacopa australis, Echinodorus var. Vesuvius, Dwarf Lily, and Dwarf Sagittaria. I don't intend for the Dwarf Sag to fully carpet the tank. The rest of the plants will be rhizome or floating types. 

I want to prioritize the fish over the plants. I have fish that really require smooth sand for a variety of reasons - they feed by taking up mouthfuls of sand, keeping the food in, and then spraying the extra sand out of their gills and they can not feed like this if the particle size of the substrate is too large. I also have fish with scaleless bellies that can be injured by rough substrate and barbels that can become infected if detritus collects in larger-grained substrates. So I really do need a smooth sand of some sort, but I'm hoping to have a planted tank. I have kept other tanks with standard Eco-Complete and with Laterite, and know for a fact that those would both be too sharp.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

ADA Aquasoil, and similar substrates are smooth enough for any fish. I doubt that the fish are bothered by harder particles in the substrate, but I'm not sure.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Any sand is fine. They even make smooth rounded sand for sand blasting or pool filters. Barbel problems are usually from poor water quality and they get infections.

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also if you worry about substrates, you can set up a tank with no substrate. It's easy to clean.


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## fischig (Nov 3, 2018)

A common option is using garden soil or mineralized topsoil (MTS) capped with sand. This sounds like it could be an good way to meet your goals.

I am setting up a 5.5 gallon tank with MTS with Tahitian Moon Sand. And, a 90 gallon with MTS. I may need to go with pool filter sand for the 90 since the colored sands are so expensive.

The ADA aquasoil, eco complete, and Fluval Stratum are all excellent, nutritious substrates. But, they are all similar in texture, i.e. smooth and gravel-sized. The problem with capping these substrates with sand is that the fine sand will work its way down through the substrate. This does not seem like it is something you would want as you want just sand on top for your fish.


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