I use nothing but fine sand (somtimes over a peat layer) usually it's just
bulding sand. All my tanks with sand are the healthiest tanks i have ever had.
I have been keeping fish for aobut 41years. The past 20 years has been with
nothing but fine sand. Lately I have found a type of sand called Taitian Moon
sand which is black but still fine sand. Fish colors show up better over a dark
substrate. But anyway, since I started using sand I have had much healther
fish, plants, and even clearer water. I stopped using filters at all and just
use an overflow into a sump where the detritus can settle out of the water. I
use clams to give the water what little filtering it gets. Cape Fear
Spadderdocks do especially well in sand as do most sword plants and other
plants with agressive root systems. I will never use gravel again! Of course
this only applies to tanks that are meant to be set up a long time. Tanks that
are over loaded by fish such as holding tanks need both bio and partical
filtration. I use lots of bogwood which causes my water to take on a weak tea
color. pH stays at or a little less than neutral and the water is moderately
hard in most of my tanks. Most fish live naturally on sand or mud, most fish
really like to dig in sand even run it through their mouths and out their
gills. I have done a lot of freshwater scuba diving and I have watched fish in
the wild for hours at a time. Fish like sand an or mud substrates in the wild.
Even fish that live in pebbly stream beds (which is a small percentage of fish)
do well over sand and often seek out sand under rocks to rest or make nests. My
sand tanks often have a layer of detritus covering large sections which fish
also seem to like. Clams prefere these areas and feed on the detritus. I have
nothing bad to say about sand, it works great for me and I am glad I started
using it 20 years ago. Carbonate sand even works great in marine tanks and is
the prefered substrate for reef tanks which I also keep.

Moon

I breed dwarf crayfish for planted aquariums and grow trees in aquariums.
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