Adding thin layer of sand to bottom pond making fish more visible.

[Shell-Fish]

Someone posted a vid of a guy making a DIY in house pond and something he did that made me think, could I do the same for outside pond.
To make his fish more visible and anything else within it, added a thin layer of sand to base of his tank and you could see the difference from standard black pond liner to fine grade sand.

Albeit this will also include predators to be able to see the fish also but if protected under netting, would this work?

 

[Mmathis]

Eventually, the sand is going to get very yucky and won’t stay pretty and clean very long. Keep in mind, too, that what looks good in a tank, won’t necessarily transfer to a pond.

All you can do is try it and see. You can always remove it if it doesn’t work out.

 

[AlyssaFish]

I asked my local pond store about this and they said it's not recommended because it will get scummy after a while. I'm not really sure if that matters, because you still have to clean out the scum at some point... what's the difference if you have to clean out the sand too? I suppose you might lose nitrifying bacteria that may have colonized the sand.

If you DO end up trying it, I'd love to see how it turns out in the long run. I want to add sand to my ponds because it would encourage my underwater plants to send out runners and expand, which would make the pond more visually interesting and natural looking than having pots everywhere.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

A layer of light colored gravel would give you the same visual effect & be much easier to maintain, IMO. Although, eventually the gravel will darken, too.

 

[Jhn]

I’ve put fine grain sand roughly 3” deep in planting beds in my pond and a couple shelves in my pond to see what would happen. As I had heard the same thing everyone else mentioned. However, my pond is going on 11 years old and the sand has caused zero issues, detritus lays on top of the sand sometimes but doesn’t really sink into the sand and eventually gets sucked into the skimmer. Never had to clean the sand either, fish kind of do it for me swimming over it and rooting around in it. Doesn’t get kicked up in the water column either when the fish are going through it.

Also, fine grain sand compared to gravel will give you more SSA for bacteria to colonize.

 

[AlyssaFish]

I’ve put fine grain sand roughly 3” deep in planting beds in my pond and a couple shelves in my pond to see what would happen. As I had heard the same thing everyone else mentioned. However, my pond is going on 11 years old and the sand has caused zero issues, detritus lays on top of the sand sometimes but doesn’t really sink into the sand and eventually gets sucked into the skimmer. Never had to clean the sand either, fish kind of do it for me swimming over it and rooting around in it. Doesn’t get kicked up in the water column either when the fish are going through it.

Also, fine grain sand compared to gravel will give you more SSA for bacteria to colonize.

Ooo! That's exciting.

How has the plant growth been in the planting beds? What kind of plants have you used it for?

 

[mrsclem]

I'm still trying to figure out how my potted lilies are rooting on my bare liner. It takes my husband and I both to pull some.

 

[Jhn]

Ooo! That's exciting.

How has the plant growth been in the planting beds? What kind of plants have you used it for?

Plant growth has been ok, in the sand for most plants they seem to do better in Pea gravel in general though. The exception is I have a huge stand of pickerel rush that has taken over one of the sand planting beds. The other ones have a Thalia in it, some anacharis, water Hawthorne, some lilies.The lilies pretty much wandered out of the sand planting bed and went into the area of the pond that is 20-24” deep. The others do fine there but not really any different maybe would do a little better in pea gravel.

At this point, plants just kind of pop up here and there and grow where they want to in the pond. If I don’t like there choice, they get removed from there.

 

[CliffandJoann]

Yes, the sand will get yucky. Your fish will be more visible if your pond is clear.
We run fresh water in the pond everyday for about 10 minutes. Hot days we will
run the hose two times a day...The fish love this fresh water addition. We do not have to
use de-clor in our pond...