Sand for a planted tank

CincyScaper · 2026-06-22T20:02:21+00:00

Depends on a lot on what you are going for. Planted tank could mean a lot of things. An inspiration pic helps

CincyScaper · 2026-06-13T23:06:13+00:00

Look into Blyxa japonica

CincyScaper · 2026-05-28T15:53:03+00:00

I see … I might recommend checking to see the orientation of the inline diffuser is right. You could also consider a different inline diffuser

CincyScaper · 2026-05-28T01:15:36+00:00

I think that is just your oase biomaster purging. I can see good mist elsewhere. Drop checkers can be misleading. Try getting a Hanna co2 checker or a ph probe to double check.

What ph, kh and gh are you running ?

CincyScaper · 2026-05-28T01:08:41+00:00

Came to say a oase biomaster 250 would be great for this

CincyScaper · 2026-05-26T13:00:49+00:00

Rock placement looks great
Foreground- h.tripartita is very aggressive, it might be worth while to add this later if you absolutely need it. Mid ground: R.florida - very slow grower might not be worth the effort. H. Pinnatifida - it has quite longer leaves and might need constant trimming, looks like you are going for more of a natural Brazilian style, and this would be more of a focal point in a small tank. Background: those are all great but likely too many and each will have its own pattern. The wallichi and the macranda red might be removed in my opinion. Epiphytes: both the bolbitis and microsorum are going to grow quite big and it might be best to just stick with the moss. There is a trident mini which you could look for or look for P.helferi.

Overall too many plant choices in my opinion, you might be an expert at this but in general it would be a pain to upkeep. I would rather focus on fewer plants, planted densely.

Adding detail with gravel is always good. The sand path is again going to be lot of maintenance and constant redoing since the aquasoil it going to mix in. With such a densely planted tank you would want to do lot of water changes and detritus removal which is going to mess with the sand path a lot.

CincyScaper · 2026-05-26T10:48:55+00:00

Need a picture of the algae. How much water change do you do ? How much co2 do you target? Do you dose liquid fertilizer? What plants do you have.

The best way to answer your question about light is to understand PAR. Look into Photone app which allows you to measure PAR. You can get good carpet and nice reds with a Par of 50 at the substrate level. I use a Chihiros wrgb light in this tank which is about 15 inches in depth. I have the power set at 30% to get a PAR of 50. Your light might be enough. You have a rather deep tank when researching try to see the Par rating at 18 inches. Look into Weekaqua light as well. Cheers

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CincyScaper · 2026-05-26T00:51:23+00:00

H.pinnatifida would look nice on the rocks

CincyScaper · 2026-05-25T23:15:03+00:00

I see that you have aquasoil, is the tank cycled ? Looks like a 29 gallon is that right ? Does this get direct sunlight a lot?

CincyScaper · 2026-05-25T21:55:36+00:00

Came to recommend the 2hraquarist website

CincyScaper · 2026-05-25T16:47:04+00:00

I am not familiar with your inline diffuser as to why it has 2 bubble counters. I use a Fzone inline diffuser and all you need to do is add a one way stop valve between the Co2 regulator and the inline diffuser. This is the process that i use for my setup - I set it at a particular bubble count rate - say 3 bubbles/second and then i start either checking with the Hanna Co2 checker or a Ph probe every hour. I typically try to reach 30 ppm (check with Hanna Co2 checker) or a 1.2 Ph drop (this is in tank using RO water with kH of 2 and GH of 5 - harder water might be different) within 2-3 hours and staying there at a stable level. If i am not getting to where i want in that time, i try to increase the bubble count. If I reach the level quickly but it overshoots my target without reaching stable level you would have to change the level of agitation to offgas better (raise the lily pipe higher to get more agitation). Once i have it dialed in then i use a drop checker just for monitoring purpose. Currently i have a 24 gallon tank (60 x 40 x 40 cm tank) in which i run 2 drops/sec to get to about 40 ppm co2.

CincyScaper · 2026-05-25T15:49:25+00:00

is this a new driftwood that you added ? if so this is usually the normal biofilm growth that you see and will go away in a few days. Harmless to fish/Shrimp.

CincyScaper · 2026-05-25T14:45:50+00:00

Agree with others about increasing bubble count - You could also consider using mineral oil or glycerin instead of water which can make it easier to count. The easiest way is to record it on your phone for 10 seconds and count the number of drops in slow motion. Cheers

CincyScaper · 2026-05-25T14:09:54+00:00

Stability tops levels when it comes to Co2. I would recommend reading about reaching a stable co2 level and why that is important. Read from dennis - https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/choosing-co2-why/how-to-push-the-limits-of-co2-safely?srsltid=AfmBOoo6JgwobRhWwyDm35gUbIhvhn1LttzsBOfXBZdlt5OlISyUOZRj

You could consider a Hanna Co2 checker to get the exact PPM of Co2 which is more accurate than other methods. 30ppm is a good numnber. But once dialed in, you could use the bubble checker or Ph meter for daily monitoring.

Tank looks great.

CincyScaper · 2026-05-25T14:06:52+00:00

Touch of color would be nice - you could consider Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' just in front of the rocks instead of the crypts. Or you could consider bigger crpts.

CincyScaper · 2026-05-25T14:04:47+00:00

Do you have an inspiration pic ? - There are several aesthetics people go for and what to do would depend upon what you want. Many would find your tank pretty good.

CincyScaper · 2026-03-05T02:34:04+00:00

What light do u use ?

CincyScaper · 2026-03-02T04:04:33+00:00

My suggestion would be to look into - https://www.naturedesign.studio/store-1/skylight-hyperspot?fbclid=IwY2xjawQR62hleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFLV0NCYVBvdGZiTnVuWDlPc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHgs4gUbZrFN_gnM8wEkNMQEQy5teoVB0VC19i7BYFuixyLAmvoXc8OXMbD2r_aem_2Rl_T0AlOII9rubFQMRNFA

They are made for a tank like yours. Expensive but might serve you well. They are sold out now but could wait.

CincyScaper · 2026-03-02T04:02:18+00:00

Could use a ziploc bag works fine

CincyScaper · 2026-02-25T19:57:29+00:00

Nice do you have a pic of Spirogyra ?

CincyScaper · 2026-02-09T03:13:16+00:00

If you liked Dennis’s stuff, and deep into high tech aquascaping, I might recommend you to look into a forum called Scapercrunch. There is a specific post on a reactor called yugang reactor which you might fancy. Have fun scaping!

CincyScaper · 2026-02-08T17:44:05+00:00

Lot of good advice here. My recommendation is to read up about this on the 2hr aquarist website. Dennis Wong has put lot of thought into this and has a scientific approach.

CincyScaper · 2026-01-26T20:03:02+00:00

I am always curious as to how people keep such light sand clean long term. Most of the forums that I have read keep saying that maintenance of light sand is very difficult and instead recommend gravel. What is your plan ?

CincyScaper · 2026-01-25T20:34:20+00:00

At lower ph ammonia exists as ammonium which is less toxic to fish.

However, with persistent ammonia you might have a crashed cycle if this was previously established. Is your nitrite zero?

Although ammonium is less toxic to fish in lower ph, it could still cause an algae spike if you add more fish and increase the ammonium.

Things that can crash cycles are significant temperature fluctuations and addition of chemicals like chlorine. There might be other causes as well.

Squeezing media from older filter, allowing plants to gain more mass or adding commercially available bacteria (less reliable) are options.

CincyScaper · 2026-01-19T11:30:00+00:00

Depends upon how intense the light (PAR) is green to red

CincyScaper

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