SAND vs GRAVEL | Which is the BEST Aquarium Substrate? 

I used to put 1/3 gravel and 2/3 sand mixed together in my tanks which worked well. When setting up my first tank I found I didn't have the right depth of gravel to root in plants (and could not wait until the next LFS trip). The next door neighbour gave me some pool filter sand in return for garden weeding. Plants grew well and stayed in place, it was easy to clean and the pool filter sand was a lot cheaper than 'specialist' aquarium sand. I did the same in all my tanks.

1st

i tried sand over black volcanic, and got cyano :c sad