I currently have 2 tanks operating with fine sand over Flourite, a L 20 and 55 and both have become jungles. Once the sand has settled in a planted tank and the roots have established, clearing mulm really isn't all that difficult. Just don't get the end of the siphon tube close enough to the sand to take it up. The mulm is so much lighter than the sand and never as compacted, so once you determine the right diameter of hose to use for just enough to pick up mulm, you can run the end of the hose just above the surface and suck up mulm without taking up sand. BTW: If you use a foam prefilter over the intake strainer on a power filter, it will never pick up any gains of sand to damage the impeller. It's also a great way to combine bio-filtration with mechanical. When I do water changes on the 55, I use two siphon hoses. First a small diameter, to clear the mulm from the substrate, then a larger size held higher in the water, just to drain it more quickly. It works. Actually, the largest chore with the sand is in cleaning it before you use it and why I'm awaiting spring and warm weather to wash enough to set up another 55. I washed the flourite for it in the sink in my greenhouse and ended up needing to clean out the sump with a shop vac afterwards. The next batch will be done in a watering trough, where extra sand below and around it will be a benefit and not a problem.

Hi,maybe I can help or make you dizzy. This plant is a confusion in every sense. Dyckia remotifolia is another name to the very same plant. I think the problem is that this plant has a very wide range. It grows in the Southern part of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina (Maybe in the Everest too.). I think no other Dyckia is so widespread in nature as this one. Before realizing this, people begun setting names and describing as varieties and as they begun a appear everywhere they gave up describing the enormous array of varieties. I guess there must exist lots of varieties, I myself have found remotifloia or remotiflora in Southeast of Santa Catarina, almost all over Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay. Some are so graceless and drab looking even those maddly in love to Dyckias have difficulty in caring for them. Some are so close looking to a plain grass they are only visible or noticeable whem in bloom and their petals colors vary from deep red to light orange.There are many more looks or varieties than these thre electec by the botanists. I keep at least six different Dyckia remotiflora, all collected in wilderness. Search at Dyckiabrazil Blog. If the weather allow I will take shoots of them tomorrow and put them in the blog. But identifying these plants up to varieties would be a challenge I would never accept muyself. If you manage to identify as remotifolia you are already a master in Dyckia identification. Dyckias are besides alluring illuding as the may present numerous regional varieties as the remotifolia and they also may vary their looks and shapes accordingly to the cultivation and light( duration and , intensity of it). Perfectly safe and wise to say about these remotiflora or remotifolia is beautiful or not and this is ever a personal cause. In nature they thrive on sand and rarely on rocks. All reproduce by runners, a sand dweller capability rare in rock living species. Uruguay is a flat territory and there is not a mountain there nor a hill to be found. It is a Dyckia remotiflora paradise as it love sandy terrains. There they are found where the cattle did not ate them to extintion along the centuries of cattle raising.Sheep contrary to cows remove the plants up rooting them and not just cutting them. Many sand dweller Dyckias has been lost forever in these vast pasture areas. Some we will never know of them. We have very few information about any Dyckia and doubts as yours are absolutely common.

As with many other issues, I suppose there are different views... but being a newbie and after having read different responses, here and elsewhere, I'm more inclined to accept that beach sand is not a good thing. Thanks for your input :)) @lisasfbay9b I would say the proportion is say 1 to 8 in the smaller pots, 1 to 15 in the medium-sized ones and way bigger in the others, so yes, it might not be such a drama after all. As I said, the intent (alas, how mistakenly it seems now!) was to have a small layer of a material which, in principle, would always be dry (beach sand doesn't retain water, right?) so when the plant roots reached that level at the bottom of the pot they wouldn't be soggy or wet in case I over watered, hence they wouldn't rot. Yes, all the pots have holes, I'm newbie, but that I get! As per how salty... I'm not tasting it, huh (LOL!), seriously, I wouldn't know and I don't have the equipment to measure it. I can only say is natural beach sand from the beaches here in Barcelona. It's very fine sand. As per salting it out, well, since there are plants in the pots I don't want to overwater and then kill them. @rina_Ontario,Canada(5a) Regular soil means (to me as a 'city dweller') standard bagged soil you can purchase in 5,10,20 and 50L bags at most garden centres, and I believe in English is referred to as "potting soil", right? As per how are they doing, well, some are doing fine others no so much, but (a) it's been a recent plant out and (b) those that are not doing so well it might just well be that I'm a newbie and perhaps I'm watering too much, or perhaps they are too exposed to the sun.... or a thousand other things I might be doing wrong. As they say "always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will."

I've done the slide thing on each side of my house over the 3 years I've lived here. I feel your pain. One slide resulted in a nasty sprain that took months to heal. I learned to stay off of the grass when wet and to stay off the leaves completely. Both conditions are hazardous. I live on the side of a mountain, really steep. And I'm on the north side so there is a fair amount of shade. I am slowly replacing the weeds with flowers. I use a lot of ground covers. Along side the driveway I've put fruit trees on one side and the veggie bed on the other side using 6 inch logs to create the tiers. Then I haul the compost up to them. That's been quite a job lately. The hill is clay and rocks so I dig a hole (hard work) place the compost and clay mixture in the hole use the stones from the hole to build a little edging and then plant my plants. Over all I have a ten year plan for getting the property to the place I want it. So far I'm not doing to badly at staying on schedule. I love the look of the uphill view from my livingroom. And it gets better every year. I'm no where near where others are but I'm enjoying the journey.