After looking at many beautiful photos of tanks I decided that I liked the looks of a sand substate and wanted to try it. Cutting the costs of projects and getting the most for my money is always a priority.

There are many "Aquarium Specific" sands that are sold ( and expensive) but in the end it seems that they all have one thing in common.......NO NUTRIENTS !

So if there are no nutrients in sand ... what do we have to be concerned with ?

         Only 2 Things... Water Buffering Abilities and Appearance !

  The appearance is YOUR decision but bear in mind that some sands will buffer the PH , some will buffer the GH/KH values , and some will buffer all of these at once... the only way to tell is to simply get a little bit as I did and put a handful in a jar and see if it changes your water parameters. Most of the aquarium specific sands will tell you of buffering abilities but we have now learned that this is not always the case !

  I paid $ 2.79 for a 50 # Bag of playsand at Home Depot at the suggestions from friends and I figured that it was cheap enough to take a shot at. I took this home and put a 1 1/2 " base in a mason jar and continually stirred it , let it settle for a few hours and tested the water over a 3 day period... the effects on PH were none during this period which I liked... the GH went up 1ppm end the KH never moved over the 3 day testing period.

  Once that I determined this sand would have no ill effects on my water parameters and I knew I could achieve the look I wanted in my tank , the next step was to make this substrate more plant friendly.

  This is the  expensive part... I chose Flourite as the base layer which can be used by itself or used in a " mix " as I did to ensure the plants would get some benefits from the rooting base as opposed to straight sand or aquarium gravel.

                              Step 1

Put in at least a 2 inch layer of Flourite down

  I saved a little flourite to sprinkle over the sand for effect. After time the sand will settle down into the flourite anyway but that cannot be helped. To keep the sand look at the top you will need to just add a new layer.

  Here is a photo of the tank after planting. I think what you will also like about using sand is its ability to hold the smallest of clippings with ease.

                                                Step 2

Rinse the Sand well amd add your desired thickness  over the Flourite

To avoid stirring up sediments from the sand use a plate to fill the tank.

Now you are ready to go !