# Sandy beach aquascape



## anfield (Dec 1, 2013)

Posted this in the substrate forum but perhaps more appropriate here? Preparing a 40g breeder planted tank with eco-complete. I want to have about 10% of the substrate area covered in sand only with no plants just rocks. Wondering if I could see some examples of folks who have done this (not just youtube videos of award winning aquascapes). What are the problems with doing this setup and will it all simply mix together in the end? Thanks


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## thelub (Jan 4, 2013)

There are a few examples of what you want to do here:
http://www.tropica.com/en/layouts.aspx

and here

http://en.iaplc.com/results12/top200vote/

Doing a sandy beach will eventually mix, especially if you have active bottom dwellers like corys. You can minimize it by adding in some sort of border guard between different substrates to minimize mixing.


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## anfield (Dec 1, 2013)

Thanks. Those pics are where I got the idea. Any suggestions for a barrier?


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## fraviz (Dec 7, 2012)

plastic that you can cut from 2 liters soda bottles


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## anfield (Dec 1, 2013)

Simple yet brilliant. Why didn't I think of that? Thanks. Have you done something similar yourself?


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

My main tank started off with a fluorite/gravel mix, but I've been slowly converting parts of it to sand. I tried a variety of barrier methods, but utimately found that my corys, snails and my general mucking about with the 'scape would end up throwing the mix into the sand unless the barrier was really high--at which point it became an eyesore as the sand got moved around and the barrier was exposed. 

When I moved to my house this fall, the tank had to get broken down almost entirely for transfer and I used it as an opportunity to switch out more of the substrate; it's now got the fluorite/gravel mix in the back half with sand all along the front and a few "roads" of sand back between plants. The line between the two is held with a mix of heavily rooted plants (mostly crypts), wood pieces and river rock. Bits of fluorite and gravel get kicked out onto the sand, but it's been easy enough to keep clear with a combination of using tweezers to pick up the gravel and toss it back to the back while I'm pruning/cleaning and an occasional run of a coarse net thru the sand to sift out the fluorite--added bonus: it sifts out the empty snail shells left behind by the assassins and lets me sift out some of the MTS to reduce population.


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## anfield (Dec 1, 2013)

Nice tank and great suggestions, I think I will try use a combination of rock to separate the area and plant along the border. Some overlap is inevitable I guess.


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