Please check my plan

[rachel1811]

Made a few decisions.....

- 30L tank
- filter
- heater
- sand
- live plants
- rocks built into multi storey cave type things
- betta

- mayb an algae eater but have to do more research

Any suggestions on plants plz?

Anything wrong or am I missing anything?

Thanks

Rx

[Mister Sparkle]

I've heard people say not-too-nice stuff about sand and bettas. Personally, I haven't tried it. Just thought you might want to google it and see what comes up.

[andreig09]

i have 2 bettas in a tank with sand as substrate and it looks great!!!

[Mister Sparkle]

Good! Like I said, I have no personal experience with it. I just happened to remember something I had heard some time ago.

[rachel1811]

Originally Posted by Mister Sparkle

I've heard people say not-too-nice stuff about sand and bettas. Personally, I haven't tried it. Just thought you might want to google it and see what comes up.

Thanks for this!! Googled it and Bettas eat sand which kills them,

Thank u very much

Rx

[truthequalslies]

I read that it's realy hard to grow plants in sand since it has no nutritional value for the plants and it'sdificult to clean

[Tinthalas Tigris]

There are many different kinds of sand. The sand you can get from a hardware store to mix into concrete, bottom a pond, or fill a sand box is cheap, and works fine.

Your mileage may vary, but I have had no problems with it yet.

Many aquascapers also highly recommend play sand. It is best if you aerate it somehow, whether by mixing it with a thicker medium such as gravel (to give it space) or provide the tank one of a variety of snails that burrow into sandy substrates.


I use plain laterite kitty litter beneath mine. It is an experiment still playing itself out, but so far I am very satisfied with it.

[Hadouken441]

Sand being bad for plants? As apposed to growing plants in fake colored gravel? Sand is fine. Kitty litter in the bottom works great BUT you have to get the right brand. If you dont want to risk that you can always just but root tabs. Those last a long time. Or if you dont want to do THAT (lol) you can but a bottle of fertilizer and mix that in with your sand. Not that hard. Seems like work buts its really not

If your betta is eating sand, its retarded. Sorry to say but its true. And they most likely used a too fine of sand that gets stirred up easy. They prob didnt eat it but breathed in too much dust.

Easy plants.
Anubias (tie to driftwood)
Crypt (so easy you dont have to do anything)
Sword (heavy root feeder but if you fert the sand your fine)
Anacharis (super tall background plant)
Java Fern (dont have to do anything to this plant)

You can get some good looking tanks with little effort. One thing to make sure is make sure you have enough light. For a 8 gallon tank you want 20 watts of light.

This is my old tank with good light, root tabs, and easy easy co2.

[s3kshun62]

I've heard that using live sands in plants is a bit of a problem sometimes just because it'll compact over time if you dont have a snail or other bottom feeder that will stir it up. Gravel just makes it easier for the plants to root. Other than that it sounds like a good setup.

[Kittles]

That picture gets me every time, Hadouken.

Also, to rachel1811, I noticed you were looking into getting an algae eater. I hope you don't mean a Chinese Algae Eater, or Pleco, or anything of the like. These are pawned off by petstores as harmless, small algae eaters, but they grow to be large and aggressive. You could, however, get a school of Corydoras or Otos.