Unfortunately, Oracle has effectively decommitted Applets. This means you can no longer run the various CMP programs in a browser. You must download them and install them.
You must have the most recent Java
JRE (Java Runtime Environment) 1.8.0_131
32-bit or 64-bit. It no longer matters which browser you use.
The CurrCon Java Applet displays prices on this
web page converted with today’s exchange rates into your local international currency,
e.g. Euros, US dollars, Canadian dollars, British Pounds, Indian Rupees…
CurrCon requires an up-to-date browser
and Java version 1.8, preferably 1.8.0_131.
If you can’t see the prices in your local currency,
Troubleshoot. Use Firefox for best results.
Oracle has effectively decommited Applets, so this Applet will no longer run online in your browser, but it is a hybrid you
can also download, install and run it on your own machine as standalone
application. It will start and run faster if you do that. It will also
work safely even if you have disabled Java in your browser.
This Applet will let you calculate how much substrate you need for a given
aquarium. It works in either metric or imperial/US measure.
Applet
Java Requirements and Troubleshooting
SandDepth
is a signed Java Applet (that can also be run as an application)
to calculate how much aquarium sand you need for a given aquarium.
You are welcome to install it on your own website.
If it does not work…
For this Applet hybrid to work, you must click grant/accept/always run on this site/I accept the risk
to give it permission to let you choose the Look and Feel.
If you refuse to grant permission, the program may crash with an inscrutable stack dump
on the console complaining about AccessController.checkPermission.
In the Java Control Panel security tab,
click Start ⇒ Control Panel ⇒
Programs ⇒ Java ⇒ Security, configure medium security
to allow self-signed and vanilla unsigned applets to run.
If medium is not available, or if Java security is blocking you from running the program,
configure high security
and add http://mindprod.com
to the Exception Site List at the bottom of the security tab.
Often problems can be fixed simply by clicking the reload button on your browser.
Make sure you have both JavaScript and Java enabled in your browser.
Make sure the Java in your browser is enabled in the security tab of the Java Control panel.
Click Start ⇒ Control Panel ⇒
Programs ⇒ Java ⇒ Security ⇒
Enable Java Content in the browser.
This signed Java Applet (that can also be run as an application)
needs 32-bit or 64-bit Java 1.8 or later.
For best results use the latest 1.8.0_131 Java.
It works under any operating system that supports Java
e.g. W2K, XP, W2003, Vista, W2008, W7-32, W7-64, W8-32, W8-64, W2012, W10-32, W10-64, Linux, LinuxARM, LinuxX86, LinuxX64, Ubuntu, Solaris, SolarisSPARC, SolarisSPARC64, SolarisX86, SolarisX64 and OSX
You should see the Applet hybrid above looking much like this
screenshot.
If you don’t, the following hints should help you get it working:
If the above Applet hybrid appears to freeze-up, click
Alt-Esc repeatedly to check for any buried permission dialog box.
If you have certificate troubles,
check the installed certificates
and remove or update any obsolete or suspected defective certificates.
The only certificate used by this program is mindprodcert2017rsa.cer.
Especially if this Applet hybrid has worked before, try clearing the browser cache and rebooting.
To ensure your Java is up to date, check with Wassup.
First, download it and run it as an application independent of your browser,
then run it online as an Applet to add the complication of your browser.
If the above Applet hybrid does not work,
check the Java console for error messages.
If the above Applet hybrid does not work, you might have better luck with the downloadable version available below.
If you are using Mac OS X and would like an improved Look and Feel,
download the QuaQua look & feel
from randelshofer.ch/quaqua.
UnZip the contained quaqua.jar
and install it in ~/Library/Java/Extensions
or one of the other ext dirs.
Upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer or another browser.
Click the Information bar, and then click Allow blocked content. Unfortunately, this also allows dangerous ActiveX code to run. However, you must do this in order to get access to perfectly-safe Java Applets running in a sandbox. This is part of Microsoft’s war on Java.
Try upgrading to a more recent version of your browser,
or try a different browser e.g. Firefox, SeaMonkey, IE or Avant.
If you still can’t get the program working
click the red HELP button below for more detail.
If you can’t get the above Applet hybrid working
after trying the advice above and from the red HELP button below,
have bugs to report or ideas to improve the program or its documentation,
please send me an email at.
Make sure you have your zoom on normal 100%. Otherwise the Applet will not be given
enough room to run.
Give the Java Applet permission to run. It is requires permission because it allows you to change the look and
feel. Alternatively, you could download it and install it on your machine.
Use the sliders to select the length, width and height of your aquarium.
Select the depth of substrate you want.
You can also reverse calculate. Select the amount of substrate you have and it will tell you how deeply it will
spread.
You can change the look and feel with the look and feel menu item.
If you run SandDepth as a standalone utility you can drag it as big as you want, giving you longer,
easier-to-control sliders.
How Deep Should The Substrate Be?
If you don’t have plants, 2½ cm(0.98 in)
will suffice. Shallow aquarium plants will survive in 5 cm(1.97 in). The Activ-Flora company recommends 7½ cm(2.95 in)
as ideal for plants. Bigger plants you might put in pots.
What Specific Gravity Is My Substrate?
Specific gravity is a measure of how dense/heavy your substrate or gravel is. Technically is the ratio of the
weight of your substrate to an equal volume of water. If you don’t know, just use 1.5.
Many of the following links are to caribsea.com. Their site is under construction and most of the links do not
currently work.
wet, contains fertiliser. I bought a bag for my own tank and measured it.
sand, live/wet
2.11
The higher the specific gravity, the denser the substrate and the more weight of substrate you need to achieve a
given depth. Asking how dense is substrate is a bit like asking how heavy is a rock. Generalisations are not that
useful. You have to look at a particular batch of substrate. You also have to take numbers you pick off the net with
a huge grain of salt. I found some out by a factor of three. Water-packed substrate will
have a high specific gravity since the air spaces between the particles are filled with water. In other words, it
does not go as far per pound. Wet packing will increase the specific gravity by about 35%.
The specific gravity depends on the mineral and how fine the particles are. Sometimes the manufacturer will tell
you the range of particle sizes in mm, e.g.. Fiji Pink Sand 0.5-1.5 mm which can give you a clue.
If you know the specific gravities (or weights and volumes in any unit of measure) of particular brands, products
or types of substrate, please pass them on to include in the table. If you are a manufacturer of such products, here
is a chance for a free plug. If you have some substrate, please measure its specific gravity and pass it on. Ideally
you would give me:
The name of the substrate.
A link to where you can buy it
The specific gravity. Just give me the weight in pounds per cu in, oz per cup etc, and I will compute the
specific gravity for you.
The range of particle sizes in mm.
A 100 × 60 pixel ideally lifesize photo. I will crop
and resize it for you if you tell me the magnification.
I asked all the substrate vendors to provide information for the table, but only CaribSea responded.
Measuring Specific Gravity of a Sample of Substrate
When someone talks about the specific gravity of a substrate, they can mean one of two things:
The specific gravity of an individual particle. This will usually be greater than 2.0.
The specific gravity of a bag full of substrate, including all the air pockets between the particles. This can
often be less than 1.0 (weighs less than water. The individual particles will sink just
fine, however.)
For example, consider Montmorillonite clay aka
Moltan Safe-T-Sorb red. The specific gravity of an individual particle (quoted in the material data sheet), is
2.2. But specific gravity of an entire bag is 0.56, about half
the weight of water. This second definition is the one that is germane in figuring how much substrate to buy for a
given depth.
Metric Bag Weight Method
You can measure the specific gravity of your particular substrate. It is the weight in kilograms of a litre of
substrate. It is easy to adjust in your head from any other metric weights or volumes. It will just be a matter of
multiplying by some power of ten to get a number near one.
Imperial Bag Weight Method
To compute specific gravity using imperial measure is a little more complicated. Let’s assume you weigh a
bag of substrate and discover it is 15.4 pounds and has a volume of 300 cubic inches. (Perhaps it tells you on the bag, though take those numbers with a grain of salt.)
Calculate 15.4 ÷ 300 * 27.68 ⇒ 1.42 specific gravity.
You can also do the calculation by typing the following as a Google search:
convert 15.4 pounds per 300 cubic inches to kg per litre
Here is how it works: Water weighs .036_126 pounds per cubic inch. So the substrate
is 15.4 ÷
300 ÷ 0.036_126 = 1.42 times heavier, namely the specific gravity.
US Measuring Cup Method
Fill a US measuring cup exactly to the line with a sample of your substrate. Pour it into a plastic bag. Take it
to the post office, (or to someone with a postal scale), smile sweetly and ask them to weigh it for you. Let’s
say it weighs 12 oz. calculate 12 *
0.119826 ⇒ 1.437 and that is your specific
gravity. You can also do the calculation by typing the following as a Google search:
convert 12 oz per 1 us cup to kg per litre
Here is how it works: 1 US measuring cup is 236.588 ml. That
means one cup of water weighs 236.588 grams. 1 gram is
0.035274 oz. So your substrate is weight ÷( 0.035274 * 236.588 ) ⇒1.437
times as heavy as water.
Imperial Measuring Cup Method
Here is another method. Fill a US measuring cup exactly to the line with a sample of your substrate. Pour it into
a plastic bag. Take it to the post office, (or to someone with a postal scale), smile sweetly and ask them to weigh
it for you. Let’s say it weighs 12 oz. calculate 12 * 0.124_723 ⇒ 1.497 and that
is your specific gravity. You can’t do it with Google because it does not know with Imperial measuring cups
are.
Here is how it works, 1 Imperial measuring cup is 227.30 ml.
That means one cup of water weighs 227.30 grams. 1 gram is
0.035274 oz. So your substrate is weight ÷( 0.035274 * 227.30 ) = 0.1497 times
as heavy as water.
Metric Measuring Cup Method
The metric methods in preferable to the US or Imperial cup method because you can tell a metric measuring cup from
Imperial or US one, but you cannot easily tell an Imperial one from a US one. Fill a metric measuring cup exactly to
the 250 ml line with a sample of your substrate. Pour it into a plastic bag. Take it to the
post office, (or to someone with a postal scale), smile sweetly and ask them to weigh it for you. Let’s say it
weighs 340 grams. Convert to kg/litre with 340 * 0.004 ⇒ 1.36 and that is
your specific gravity. You can also do the calculation by typing the following as a Google search:
convert 340 grams per 250 cc to kg per litre
#/ft3 Method
Sometimes someone will tell you that a particular gravel is 95 pounds per cubic foot
(#/ft3). You can convert that to specific gravity. Calculate 95 *
0.016_084_6 ⇒ 1.53 and that is your specific
gravity. You can also do the calculation by typing the following as a Google search:
convert 95 pounds per cubic foot to kg per litre
Here is how it works. A cubic foot of water weighs 62.427_96 pounds, so your sample is
weight_in_pounds ÷ 62.427_96 times heavier than water,
in other words weight_in_pounds * 0.016_084_6 = 1.53 is the specific gravity.
Slider Method
Buy a bag of substrate. Pour it into a tank. Measure how deep it is using either imperial or metric measure. Use
the SandDepth Applet. Fill in the length and width of the tank and the depth of the substrate using the sliders.
Adjust the specific gravity until the weight displayed matches the weight of the bag. That is the specific gravity of
the substrate.
Types of Substrate
Ordinary sand, beach sand, river sand, construction sand, sandbox sand, pool filter sand, ashtray sand…
This is usually quite dirty, often contaminated. You can sterilise it by baking it in the oven.
Natural sands. Sand collected from beaches around the world.
Coloured sands coated in acrylic.
Plant sands, have some fertiliser added. Some are wet. You are not supposed to discard the liquid or rinse the
sand. The water will initially be quite cloudy.
Live sand, wet, fresh or marine, coated with natural bacteria to get a good bacteria balance started. Has an
expiry date.
Marine sands (aragonite, corals) are calcium carbonate. You would not use these in fresh water tanks because
they make the water hard.
Gravels. I don’t mean hunks 2 cm(0.79 in) across used in cradling drainage pipes, just
particles bigger than 5 mm.
3M colorquartz. Intended for lining swimming pools. Inert. Comes in dozens of colours. Discontinued, thus being
sold off very cheaply.
Silica Sand. White sand intended for sand blasting. Available cheaply at a building supply store.
Sand or Gravel?
Which should you use, sand or gravel. If you keep a single species of fish or fish from the same region of the
world, you should research what the bottoms look like there and mimic them.
Advantages of Gravel
The substrate tends to stay is place.
Advantages of Sand
It is gentler on the barbels of fish.
Corydoras, Kuhli Loaches and Dwarf Puffer Fish prefer sand.
Plants grow better in sand.
Cichlids and goldfish like sifting through the sand for food.
More surface area for bacteria.
Most people think sand looks better.
Disadvantages of Gravel
Dirt gets down in the pockets between the grains. It takes more work to clean it out.
In nature, you tend to encounter pure gravel substrates in areas of very vigorous water movement, few plants
and few fish. Those probably aren’t the conditions you're attempting to recreate in your tank.
Disadvantages of Sand
The substrate tends to flow into a level plain, especially with fish that like digging in the sand.
It’s difficult to vacuum without sucking up the sand.
Depending on colour (you can get black), detritus shows more.
You need to be more careful on where you place the filter intake so as not to suck sand into the filter.
You must turn off the filter when you clean or you will clog the filter.
It is difficult to clean without sucking up sand along with the poop. You have to either capture, clean and
replace the sand you suck up or replace it with new sand.
Anaerobic gases build up underneath and can damage, or kill fish when they are released. You need to stir the
sand frequently to release them.
The Dust Problem
Especially with fertiliser or microbe-treated substrates that you are not supposed to rinse, when you first set
up, the water will be quite cloudy with fine dust particles. An ordinary filter may not be to remove them. You need
something with a finer mesh such as micron filter pads or filters utilizing diatomaceous earth. Most of the filters
of this type are very expensive. Perhaps you could rig up something with orlon wool in a conventional filter. Another
low-cost possibility is the Tetra Whisper internal filter with bio bag filter.
Lighting
I started out with two 15-watt fluorescents. One or the other of them would die about
every month. A replacement cost
. I decided to replace them with an expensive LED (Light-Emitting Diode) cover which I figured would not burn out so quickly. The catch is the light is very
dim, about equivalent of 9 watts of fluorescent total. We will see if the plants can
survive on such a low light diet.
My Fish
I am particularly happy with my choice of fish. They are quite fascinating to watch. They get along reasonably
well with each other in my heavily planted, 10-gallon tank. They were not that
expensive.
My Fish
My Fish
Species
Latin
Count
Notes
pearl danio
Danio albolineatus
1
They are similar to zebra danios. The male looks like a miniature rainbow trout. They are a schooling fish.
They Love to chase each other around wildly, but do not harm each other. They are voraciously hungry all the
time. They grew fat very quickly. The school is now down to one large female, with a deformed spine. This does
not seem to slower her down a bit.
panda cory
Corydoras panda
1
Industriously digs in the sand.
sterbai cory
Corydoras Sterbai
1
Industriously digs in the sand.
neon tetra
Paracheirodon innesi
1
smaller ones get eaten very quickly.
dwarf golden gourami
Trichogaster trichopterus
2
lovely bright yellow.
pale blue tetras
?
2
Look like a white shirt tetra with light blue and pink.
Food
I have not done that much experimenting with fish foods. I like Tetra Min. The fish love it. It is the best
selling brand. The list of ingredients looks nutritious. It smells like fish. It keeps well in the fridge. The big
problem with it is you spend twice as much in shipping as you do for the fish food when you order online.
Tips to Online Retailers
Advertise the forms of payment you accept prominently. Put that information on the contact page, in the
shopping card and on the home page. That is the first thing I look for before I start shopping. It is so
disappointing to load up my shopping cart with carefully chosen goodies then discover the vendor won’t take
my money.
It is quite a hassle to import goods from a foreign country. If you are located in my country, that is a big
plus. Proudly advertise your location on your home page. All you need is a little flag in the upper right corner of
your home page.
You may be located in a different country from me, but perhaps you carry something no one else does, or have an
unbelievably good price. Will you ship to me? Please post the countries your are willing to ship to on the page
where you explain shipping charges.
Futures
I hoped to collect substrate information from the other major vendors, however, they have all turned me down.
If there is interest, I could write a heater-sizing app. To do it properly, it is not just a matter of multiplying
the gallons by 7.5. It depends on the ambient temperature both day and night and to a
lesser extent, the shape of the tank. Cubic tanks need less heat than the same capacity in a low flat tanks. Big
tanks need proportionately less heat than small ones because the surface area to volume ratio is lower. To be
fanatical, I could account for the fact the four sides, the open top and the enclosed bottom all have different
insulating abilities. You don’t have to be that accurate just to buy a heater, so this would really be more to
entertain the perfectionist learning how the various variables influence power consumption. The lights, especially
incandescent, provide much of the heat during the day. To do this properly, I should observe the cycle times of a
number of thermostats in a number of different tank shapes and sizes to verify my math. I was somewhat surprised at
the lack of interest and outright hostility when I told people about my Sand Depth Calculator. You’d think I
had done something criminal. This has dampened my enthusiasm for writing future programs.
When I was in Indonesia, I noticed the extreme rapidity with the sun rose and set and that days and nights were
almost the same length all year round. This suggests to me tropical aquarium plants and fish would prefer a
12-hour light cycle. I think I will experiment with a timer.
Book presents scientific information that hobbyists can use to set up and maintain successful planted freshwater aquaria. Book contains practical tips using a question-and-answer format in boxes scattered throughout the text. Hobbyists learn how to keep a healthy and inexpensive aquarium. Although the author prefers low-tech methods, she lays out the science that underlies all methods. The author shows that hobbyists can create thriving planted freshwater tanks without CO₂ injection, fertilizers, expensive lighting and high-tech gadgets.
Online bookstores carrying Ecology of the Planted Aquarium
New fish-keepers are quite often impatient to set up their aquarium and want to add their new, expensive fish as soon as possible. This common misstep can have disastrous results that may discourage beginners from ever trying again. The book uses detailed photographic sequences to follow each stage of setting up an aquarium in real time over 10 weeks.
Online bookstores carrying Setting up a Tropical Aquarium, Week by Week
Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock. Try looking for it with a bookfinder.
Mini Reviews
Pets and Ponds: Canadian (ON) aquarium online
supplier, aka Critter Cove, is excellent. They have a huge selection. The website is packed with information and
your order arrives days sooner than promised.
TetraMin tropical flakes are excellent. They are 47% protein. They have a fishy
smell. My fish go nuts over them. I feed them many times a day in quite small amounts. I figure this is closer to
the way fish would feed in nature. Further, watching them feed is more interesting that just swimming around. It is
probably best to keep them refrigerated, though it does not recommend that. They develop a slightly unpleasant
smell over time.
I got some Korin Hikari Algae wafers. I was concerned my tiny Siamese algae eater might become malnourished now
he has polished off all the algae in the tank. The wafers are not actually wafers. They
are a dark green hard tablet about the size of a Tums Extra 750 mg tablet. They dissolve
very slowly. They small strongly of algae, but they are mostly fish meal. The catfish, bettas, platys and the
snails love them. They nibble on them, as they would an algae-covered rock, leave and come back again and again. It
reminds of an aquatic cattle lick attracting a small group of wild animals. The Siamese algae eater, the intended
guest of honour at the feast, is reclusive and sedentary so I have not yet seen him nibble on them.
I have been trying to find a good food for the catfish. The other fish hog the flake food before the catfish
even get a chance. The first sinking food I tried turned out to be too hard and too big for their little mouths. I
am now trying a 1mm food called Profishient with 46% protein. It has a nutritious fishy
smell. The catch is the bettas love it and attack the catfish to keep them away from it. I used to keep fish as a
child, but I never remember them having quite the voracious appetites this batch do.
The Fluval Nano internal filter pumps as astounding amount of water. My catfish, if they are not careful, get
caught in the current and are swept along like leaves. All that is inside the filter is some very coarse foam and
an optional tiny canister of activated charcoal. There is nothing there to filter out particulate matter. I have
augmented it with some orlon wool. The tank is very clean. Not even the gravel accumulates much crud.
The Marineland Penguin 100A external filter too silently pumps a prodigious amount of water. There is a
spinning cardboard biowheel which appears to have no function other than entertaining
children. The water goes through a single coarse mat which is good at collecting dead leaves, but not much else. I
have augmented it with some orlon wool.
The Hagen LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
external thermometer is very hard to read. At first I thought it was not working at all. I have to shine a little
LED
flashlight on it. However, it did let me discover the incandescent lights that came with the hood were heating the
tank 2.8°C(5.0°F)
hotter than I intended.
I discovered that replacing the lights with cooler LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes)
would cost hundreds of dollars, so I settled on replacing them with full spectrum fluorescents. I got a Hagen
15-watt Glo Life-Glo and an Aqueon 10-watt Colormax. Oddly, the smaller bulb was more expensive. The Life-Glo has a
slightly greenish cast. The Aqueon had a red-blue cast. It died within a week. I replaced it with a 10-watt
Colormax. Ironically, green plants don’t use green light. The pair of them are considerably brighter than the
incandescents they replaced. This brought the temperature down and improved the health of the plants almost
immediately.
The Fluval 50 watt heater just quietly does its thing without fanfare. I just noticed
it has a tiny turquoise indicator light. Most of the time the lights provide sufficient heat.
An aquarium scraper sold as a general cleaning tool will cost half as much in a supermarket as an aquarium
store and it will be identical.
Before you buy plants, explain your lighting setup to the aquarium staff. Some plants need high light, others
less.
Please read the feedback from other visitors,
or send your own feedback about the site. Contact Roedy.
Please feel free to link to this page without explicit permission.
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