sand AND gravel mixed? Sand questions

[scootshoot]

Here is my 5 gallon with sand setup (had 1/4 inch of gravel already so basically dumped the sand on top). Thanks for starting this thread as it refreshed my memory to look for sand during my visit to Petco. Also resolved my annoyance with uneaten food....

[Here Fishy Fishy Fishy]

Scootshoot,

Is that.... a floating rock I see? Interesting decoration :)
Looks like a floating betta cave thingee...

[scootshoot]

Yeppers it's the floating betta log. They come in a variety of sizes. The smallest one (perfect for a 5 gallon) was 9 bucks at petco, purchased it the same day as the sand. My boy loves it!

[Lupin]

Originally Posted by baylee767

so pretty! Now you should get some sort of creature that eats algae (Shrimp, nerite snails, etc) So algae doesn't form on the sand. Trust me, in a salt water tank it is imposible to kill the algae on the sand, when we stir it up a bunch it'll just keep on going and not get killed.

But other than that, beautiful tank!! I love white sand beds, they are just awesome! and the best combo ever with live plants!

Well, that's expected. Algae is part of the ecosystem and it will always happen as long as the nutrients available is adequate for them. Adding some fast growing plants discourages the algae from taking in too much nutrients thus slowing down their growth, however, with brown algae/diatoms, high silicates will still prompt it to flourish. They diminish as the tank ages.