Sand!

Alright, so i have seen that some of you like to use sand instead of rocks.

I have a few questions reguarding that.

#1. Can i use any sand, like from sand bags or do i have to use specific sand

#2. Will it affect any of my fish? (i.e. goldfish, pleco's, catfish)

#3. Does it make the tank harder to clean?

#4. What if i decide to go back to rocks, Is it hard to remove?

 

umm i cant say all of them but here is a try, 1: a lot of ppl here have said you can but i would still buy the sand frm a lfs. 2: ummm do you have goldfish with tropical fish!?! if so bad idea goldfish is coldwater not tropical, cleaning isng much of a diff. just use the piton and lightly run over the sand. and im not to sure about the changing to gravel after. it will depend on what you say is hard to change.

 

1 Yes you can use anysand just make sure you clean it good
2 it shouldn't
3 not really
4 nope just stake it out like gravel

 

well, no matter what type you use, its better if you use those thats bought from your LFS. For rocks, it may cause alkaline water. Best of luck.

 

my bro got sand and it was SW sand. so u have to be careful what kind of sand u have. and yeah i think sand is hard to remove if u were going to switch back to rocks.

 

wahoo, my answers where close. lol.

 

#1 - Don't use marine/saltwater sand. The most common types of sand people use are playsand (for kid's sand boxes) and pool filter sand. You can also use tube sand (for weighing down trucks in the winter). It's cheaper than playsand, but it's a lot dirtier so it will take a lot longer to rinse.

#2 - Nope, it should be fine. I have it in all my tanks and don't have any problems. In fact, it's actually better for fish like cory cats and kulie loaches.

#3 - Both sand & gravel have their pros & cons for cleaning. With gravel, it's difficult to get all the waste. With sand, all the waste sits on top so it's easer to get to. But sand does get sucked up fairly easily (you'd have to leave the siphon in one place for quite a while to remove a significant amount of sand, though). And you have to make sure to stir the sand a little every couple of weeks to prevent anaerobic pockets & hydrogen sulfide gas from forming.

#4 - The only time I've tried to remove sand was when my 10 gallon sprung a leak. The majority of the sand was easy to just scoop out. If you wanted to get every last grain out, you'd probably have to use a shop vac. But even if you left a little sand i there, it would get covered up by the gravel and would probably eventually get sucked out when you vacuumed the gravel. And I wouldn't recommend switching from sand to gravel with the fish still in the tank.

-Chelle

 

interesting there has been lots of debate on what sand is best. so what one should we really use?

 

I have play sand in my 55, pool filter sand in my 10 & 20, and tube sand in my 75. All of my fish are doing perfectly fine.

-Chelle

 

I have heard bad things about play sand though. like the salt, chemicals, maybe metals and even things that could have slipped in there and where missed when cleaning the sand.

 

I can probably think of at least 20 other people that use play sand in their tanks and their fish are also fine.

-Chelle

 

So far my tank with sand is doing ok. Going through a mini cycle but that's to be expected really. I really like the look and the price is sooooo much better. $2.92 for a 50 lb bag instead of $20 for a 15lb bag of good gravel at the lfs. I'll take that deal any day!

 

oh, ok. I am getting a 10 gal in the next two weeks and i am going to use sand on that one. So here are a few questions:
1: how much sand do i put in?(inches)
2: How do i clean the sand when i first buy it?
3: Is it safe for all freshwater fish? (platy mainly)

thanks!

 

[/i]

 

ok... whats that about. lol.

 

I replied funky sorry. The italics are my responses.

 

ooo, sorry i usually dnt read my quotes. lol.

 

I use sand in my 5g guppy tank i would have used it in my 20g if i had known about it then, I used just normal sanitized play sand its really cheap and as long as you give it a good wash it doesnt cloud 8)

 

thanks for all the help everyone!

 

IIRC, this is the formula for determining how many lbs of sand you need (measurements in inches)

(length x width x depth of sand) / 25 = lbs of sand

so

(20 x 10 x 1) / 25 = 8 lbs of sand

-Chelle