Re-did my tank

[Kaini]

Completely changed up Zion's tank! Went from bare-bottom to sand and added a few live Anubias nana :> a feeding dish too.

First pic is before, then after! I think Zion really likes the sand - he has an easier time getting around.

Yes - the sand is pretty thick, against my usual advice lol. I added a little too much, whoops. But it gave my plants plenty of room to root and I'll agitate it regularly.

The last pic is the hide/ level I'm going to add once the aquarium sealant I used to stick it together is done curing, in two days. :> It'll go in that empty back corner.

 

[scorpio110684]

Looks good but you are right the sand is a little think lol. I like the plants I've still been searching for some plants to put in with my dynamic duo but to no luck.

 

[Skudo09]

Looks great Kaini

 

[Lianne]

Looks much better Easier for the eye, the tank without substrate looked a little cluttered, maybe because of the reflections in the bottom.

 

[Kaini]

Looks much better Easier for the eye, the tank without substrate looked a little cluttered, maybe because of the reflections in the bottom.

Yea before it was just blargblrg, but that setup was very temporary while he was a baby - set up and cycled with just his bare needs in mind until he got bigger :> I'm happy I was finally able to arrange it like I wanted

 

[Elliriyanna]

I think you did the right thing ... when they are babies you do not want to overcomplicate things , Mine are in large critter keepers with a single hide ... Makes feeding and cleaning easier.

But now that he is bigger its a great change for him

 

[Kaini]

I think you did the right thing ... when they are babies you do not want to overcomplicate things , Mine are in large critter keepers with a single hide ... Makes feeding and cleaning easier.

But now that he is bigger its a great change for him

Yep! the mostly empty setup made things easier when he was so little (man he used to be small!) but now I'm super happy with this arrangement :>

 

[Lianne]

Yea before it was just blargblrg,

Great way of putting it

 

[Kaini]

Added the slate hide and my it looks nice :> It's hard to get good pictures but I think it really adds something to the tank and Zion likes it too.

 

[NadeZ]

Really nice upgrade The slat hide looks excellent! Maybe add a background so the hide can provide a little more light cover?

 

[Kaini]

Really nice upgrade The slat hide looks excellent! Maybe add a background so the hide can provide a little more light cover?

I'm getting two more pieces of slate, I may add them to the back there so it's all nice and dark :> But yes!

 

[Shortcircuit05]

I love it! I'm gonna do something like this with my new tank

 

[Ariel]

Oops! I never considered that sand should have a specific thickness. What does "too" thick mean? What can happen if there is thick sand? The sand in my tank is much thicker Kaini's sand. It's at least 3 inches in some places, it's not level either, is this a problem? Should I change it?

 

[Kaini]

Oops! I never considered that sand should have a specific thickness. What does "too" thick mean? What can happen if there is thick sand? The sand in my tank is much thicker Kaini's sand. It's at least 3 inches in some places, it's not level either, is this a problem? Should I change it?

Sand shouldn't generally be too thick (three inches is whoa a little much) because of possible anaerobic buildup.

The main concern people have about sand would be anaerobic bacteria build-up. Anaerobic meaning without air, though more accurately, without oxygen. If you didn't know, the ammonia and nitrite reducing bacteria require oxygen to work (to convert ammonia to nitrite and to convert nitrite to nitrate).

Anywho, under anaerobic conditions, bacteria start to get their energy from other sources, like reducing sulfur instead of oxygen. And a by-product of that is hydrogen sulfide, yes, one of the deadliest compounds in nature.

So tl;dr beneath thick sand, you can get toxins building up. The remedy for this would be to stir the sand occasionally to release the pockets (In water, as soon as hydrogen sulfide comes into contact with any oxygen, it will become harmless) but if you've got a huge pocket of it and you suddenly stir it up it could kill your animal (possibly, there's some debate about that. if your water is well oxygenated it should be fine, but)

So basically just try not to get the pockets in the first place by not having your sand that thick.

 

[Ariel]

Dang, I had no idea. I guess that will be my project later this week. It's a bummer, I just redid everything. Now I'll have to figure to a way to keep my plants rooted. Right now I just bury the bottoms like beach umbrellas, but that won't work in shallow sand.

 

[Ariel]

Sorry for double posting, I can't seem to find the 'edit' button...

I am so glad I found this thread and decided to fix the tank tonight! As soon as I started digging around in the sand it began to smell really bad like sulfur and the smelliest sand had turned dark gray. I had to change all the water and rinse the sand and plants to get rid of the smell. I took out 2/3rds of the sand. Right now I am holding the plants down with a shoelace weighted with rocks, but it looks so messy... I had just planted my tank and it looked so nice!

Should I deliberately move the sand around once and a while or is it fine now if the sand is an inch deep?

 

[Kaini]

Yeeep. (There is no edit button, it disappears after a few minutes).

An inch should be fine but you should still disturb it every now and then :>