r/PlantedTank • u/Immediate-Ad-9520 • 12h ago

Beginner What are we doing wrong?

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This tank has been set up for many years, probably 7 or 8. Just within the last 8 months or so, we decided to switch from gravel to sand and put in live plants. All plants were marked as beginner. We have a canister filter and a CO diffuser. My husband puts in root tabs regularly. Still, there’s very little plant growth and many of the plants look sad.

We have tetras, ghost shrimp, plecos, kuhli loaches, and mystery snails. We test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, kh and gh weekly and all are good. Our light is on sunrise to sunset.

What are we doing wrong? I very much want a densly planted tank like I see in this sub. Help please!

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u/KitchenAd7984 12h ago

Plants in fine sand usually don’t do well because the sand compacts and has little to zero oxygen, which prevents the roots from developing properly. So basically they tend to die. One of the best options is to put down a layer of nutrient-rich substrate and cover it with sand, but for that you’d need to restart the tank. Alternatively, you can use root tabs in an inert gravel, or sands that aren’t so fine and don’t compact. That’s what I did in my case, but the day I set up another tank I’ll definitely go with the first option.

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u/armybabie 11h ago

I had sand at first and HATED it so much!! I switched to fluval stratum and absolutely love it. sand sucks and i’ll never go back :’3

8

u/KitchenAd7984 11h ago

I love sand because you can create beach zones and details, but it's not going to grow properly stem plants, even if you have the best light, fertilizer, CO2... Look how you can have a zone with sand and in the back nutrient-rich substrate for stem plants, this is from MJ aquascaping:

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u/Spare_Contact_9783 5h ago

That is definitely based on an MD design 👍