substrate depth for trigon 190

[blonc]

Hi guys,

Does anyone have any pointers for how much sand would be needed for a 190L corner aquarium? I'm planning on having a fair amount of plants in it and I realize that I'll probably need quite a bit of sand for it to be viable.

Thanks in advance,

AndreasG

[DutchFry]

First of all, welcome to PlanetCatfish

sand is not the most suitable substrate for a well planted tank. Gravel is much better because there is more water circulation and the gravel will not 'hold air' in the substrate, which a sandy substate will, and thus the substrate will rot and deteriorate.

that said, i think you will do fine with 6 to 8 cm of gravel in the back of the tank (where most plants usually stand) and about 4 cm of gravel in the front of the tank. a substrate like this (as a slope) will create a feeling of depth in the tank, which is really nice!

one thing, if you are planning to house catfish of any sort (Otocinclus, Parotocinclus and alike excluded) you'd better go for sand after all. these fish like to burry and dig and with gravel they might injure themselves! to give the plants a better chance on a sand substrate, you might want to think about a system that will heat up your substrate (don't know english word for that, sorry).

good luck and keep us informed on your progress please

[blonc]

Thanks for the reply:) It's not my first time here on PlanetCatfish though, I just couldn't remember the password for my last registration (I posted a few questions under the name Andy a number of years ago).

I prefer catfish and that's why I've planned on using the sand.

[Martin S]

Hi Andy
Yes, definitely sand then if you are going down the catfish route. I have (lots!) of snails in mine that help to keep the sand aerated by digging, and cories in both tanks which are good for keeping the top layer turned over. I've never had any problems the sand I use - I only use sand from my LFS which is coarser than playsand, but not quite as coarse as swimming pool filter sand. I think the very fine playsand, if added too deeply (2-3") can clog and stagnate unless you keep fish that bury/dig regularly.
Another alternative is to use gravel at the rear, sand at the front and some scattered pebbles to try and recreate a stream bed.
What sort of cats do you intend to keep?
Martin

[MatsP]

When (warning: namedropping) me and Jools ended up at Maidenhead Aquatics in Wigan, we bought some sand that wasn't as fine as playsand, about 2mm grain-size, and quite dark. You can see it in Rack 2 - Tank 3 in my Aquaria (although it doesn't show it off in the best way possible). In a Trigon 190, I reconn you need a whole 25kg bag (or at least most of it) - I used one bag for a total of 72 x 18 inches of base-area, and it's not very thick.

I have also used playsand. Different companies tend to use different grain-size - some are very fine, others a bit less fine. I found some Hanson brand sand in Homebase a while back, and it was a bit coarser than the stuff I got elsewhere.

I have only got one tank that doesn't have at least "half sand, half gravel" - Rack 2 - Tank 4 is that one - it has fine gravel.

--
Mats

[Richard B]

You could look at a terrace for plants at the back with a separate substrate of dsand at the front.

Or use java fern, anubias etc which grow on rocks & wood - negating substrate issues.

Or layer the substrate with gravel tidies between the layers - there are plenty of creative options

[blonc]

heh.. seems like I've got a lot of options now:) I think I'll be going for a mostly play sand mix with some of what's called english sea stones here in Sweden. As I'll probably stock the tank with 3-4 A-Pectifrons I think I can use snails to churn it about a bit without getting a population explosion.