CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Hi,

I'm a new member with a few questions.

Our daughter has a 29G community tank, that's been up for about 7 years.

It's been recommended to us that switching from gravel to sand would be a good idea, and I wanted to find out a bit more, before we decide.

Current inhabitants in her tank are a pleco, 2 cory cats, 3 rummy noses, 1 african frog, and 4 zebra danios.

She has Java Fern and driftwood in her tank. Any other plants faded away slowly, because of low light, we assume (just a regular 20w full spectrum daylight bulb).

She would like to introduce more plants, and was told they'd do better with sand, and more light.

Has anyone used the Helios light strips, and if yes, are they worth considering? Or maybe a twin tube all glass fluorescent light strip? Power compacts?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Susanne

Hi, sorry missed your post, hopefully you have email notification on. I would say sand can sometimes help since it may be easier to give the tank good cleaning. Also, some light definitely wouldn't hurt with plants. Lights are fine but personally I'd probably go for a little sunlight during the day for a tank with a lot of plants.(haven't used helio lightstrips etc...)

I agree with cichlidfish ,except for if you change to sand ditch the frog. I'm figureing it's a clawed frog (either normal or dwarf) and the can die fairly easily from compaction,from eating sand.