Purple Cow water only soil, but I like to add a variety of goodies

Top layer of play sand- it completely puts any fungus gnats night night, covers the living soil from harmful light exposure, and the beneficial microbes even end up mining it 🙂

Some people sweep the sand aside to water, I pour it right through. I highly recommend trying it!

Brilliant, I've never seen sand used as mulch before but that makes complete sense! Always learning something new with this hobby, cheers. 

Good call using playsand. I remember you talking about it in a GC episode and how looking at it makes you feel like you're at the beach lol

I use sand to shield my houseplants from gnats and it works great as long as the layer is thick enough, for me 1-2cm worked well. Thinner than that gives those suckers still enough room to dig right through. I saw them do it more than once. In case of an ongoing infestation I recommend spraying the sand with water. It creates a truly impenetrable barrier for them.

Congrats on your win!!!!