"François Arsenault" wrote in message
.. .
Hello everyone,

Is regular sand, say of the typical sandbox type, an appropriate substrate
for a planted aquarium? At first I thought it would do just fine (which it
may be, for all I know). It's cheap, and I figured it might make it easier
to plant the plants than regular gravel.



In short, yes. Usually called Play Sand, it will work well, however, it
requires some attention.

1: Rinse it well, or you'll have a dust. cloudy tank for days, and again
everytime a bottom feeder scoots in a hurry.
2: It packs too tight, as you surmised. Use it as a top layer only, do some
research in order to decide what you want beneath it.

As far as vacuuming, I've found that as tight as it packs, just waving the
vacuum above the sand works fine, as the gord doesn't pass through the sand
layer.