sand and substrate slope.

[Sb1415]

1. Sand - What is the long term maintenance routine for sand like ADA La plata ? Do people keep refreshing it or do you just vaccum it ?

2. Substrate slope - How does one keep the slope from front to back with aquasoil when there is no hardscape ? I see that the the aquasoil is rolling forward slowly and the slope is less than when i started.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Depends on how deep your sand bed is. If you have a thin layer it’s easiest to siphon and replace, but I would keep what you siphon in a bucket and rinse out the sand and then keep it in a dark space. It’ll kill off whatever may have been growing on it and you can reuse it again in the future. That’s not a cheap sand option so that’s what I’d do, but if you opt for pool filter sand that’s cheap enough to toss and replace. But again, this is all dependent on how much sand you need. Vacuuming and swishing it around if it’s a few inches deep works well too, I do it myself with my pool filter sand.

 

[Dennis Wong]

Steep slopes with sand (like what you see in competition tanks) are glued down by super glue. It forms a solid mass. For some exhibition show scapes I used half a litre of glue in 3ft tank to keep everything in place.

Aquasoil/soil doesn't hold slopes without substrate supports or hardscape barriers. Planting the slope well, and delicately, allowing plants to root well will hold back the slope. However, it slides everytime you do replanting so its not great approach. Using hardscape barriers/substrate supports is the better long term solution.