# Need plant advice to stabilize a sandy slope/mound



## bc_sunrise (Dec 29, 2013)

Hi All, I am inexperienced with growing plants well and am going to finally plant my dream 75 gallon tomorrow or the next day. Hoping to get some suggestions for what to plant to keep sand in place more or less for the tank in the pictures here. I have an inch of turface (like power sand), then 1-1.5 inces potting soil thats been submerged for 3 months, and capped with 1 inch black sand. The white sand is for the bottom fish and the top area is for plants that will hopefully reach the top of the tank and hit the air. It's a cheap 75G aqeon that is 21' high, hence the need to raise the soil higher to allow stronger light for the plants.

I have three other tanks with lots of cuttings to take from - Wisteria, bacopa monneiri, bacopa carolina, siamese hygro, 3 nice balansae crypts, and red or glandulosa? ludwigia.

Does anyone have experience using any of these to see that they have a mass of roots which really holds the sand in place? I guess a hairgrass would do that but it would take over the whole tank eventually and takes forever to fill in. Also, are any of these plants ok to simply snip at the base right at the ground, and replant the tops? I have read in Walstad that you really should remove the roots to avoid the slow rot of them but of course on a slope it will slide down a little each time. Also usually a bit of soil gets pulled up to into the sand. 








I'll be stocking the tank with 6 adult yoyo loaches, 5 cories, 4 glass cats and 6 giant danios. I was thinking the planted areas where up high enough that the bottom dwellers would stick to the lower sand mostly?

Thanks for any advice.


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## greenfin (Nov 4, 2013)

Hi, I made little acrylic "T's" of varying heights and lengths and put them on the glass bottom then filled the substrate over top. After one year, the slopes are more or less in place. My experience with keeping a slope with plants alone was that over months, despite the root growth, the slope levelled off. Somewhere is my tank journal and you can see the pictures of those acrylic pieces. Good luck


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## greenfin (Nov 4, 2013)

Ah, I see you've got the substrate in place already. Perhaps you can slide little acrylic rectangles (credit card size?) down into the substrate.


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