I like the look of the sand and I had heard you can put sand in a freshwater tank.I just dont see how with the types of tank cleaner fish you can do that.It seems to me they would suck up the sand and harm them.I am by no means a expert on tanks.So I thought comeing here and asking would be a good idea.Can you put sand in a freshwater tank?
What about sand in your tank???
- Thread starter autumn
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I'm redoing my freshwater tank with sand right now. You need to be careful with silica-based sands because the grains can be sharp and wear down wiskers and such. There are sands made specially for aquariums and some generic sands that would work well, though.
Many fish would love to dig around in the sand, and it's supposedly much easier to clean than gravel since waste stays right on top. You would need to keep the bed fairly shallow, though, to avoid the formation of pockets of "dead water". It would also be good to have some critters that would keep it stirred up a bit.
Many fish would love to dig around in the sand, and it's supposedly much easier to clean than gravel since waste stays right on top. You would need to keep the bed fairly shallow, though, to avoid the formation of pockets of "dead water". It would also be good to have some critters that would keep it stirred up a bit.
I'll take the opposite tack. I've used plenty of sand in the past and now and in the future will never use it again unless the fish to be housed absolutley require sand for burrowing. Sand beyond very shallow beds requires several times the work of gravel to maintain, and the maintenenace involved is more difficult and time consuming. Certainly it is possible, but to me it is not worth the effort. NIMT.
Well, you certainly have the experience to back it up. I think it's one of those things I'll have to try for myself, though.
I've used sand before and I'll give it a maybe as to whether I"ll use it again. I found it showed dirt much better than gravel does, but was much, much harder to clean. Also the fish tended to push it around and dig in it and you wound up with bare tank bottom in some parts and "sand dunes" in other parts of the tank. When it was clean it looked very, very nice though.
I have a 20 long with a 50/50 mix of flourite and Tahitian Moon sand as substrate. I love the look of it and don't find it any more difficult to maintain than a gravel substrate. I have loads of MTS to stir things up and haven't had a problem with anaerobic pockets (at least not yet). It's well planted too, which helps. Vacuuming waste is easy since it stays on the surface.