Using Sand as a Substrate?

[Bonniegiff]

My son is setting up a new fish tank and is using sand for the first time. He is concerned that any movement in his fish tank will cause cloudy water. Does the sand ever settle down, or is it always going to be cloudy. Anytime he wanst to do something in the tank like fix a plant or move a rock will it always get cloudy? Maybe he should not invested in sand. Can any one tell me what the trick is to keeping the sand settled. He wants to fix the problem before he puts fish in the tank.

[808_fairladyz]

Sand will settle and your filter should clear the cloudiness but don't go to deep with sand cause when sand compacts enough and traps waste in it, methane gas bubbles can form and be released when sand is shifted. Keep sand shallow.

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[Glabe]

you can make it less likely to get cloudy by washing out the fine stuff. fill a 5 gal bucket half full of sand, turn on the garden hose, and start jabbing the hose into the sand and stirring it around. when the bucket fills up, dump out the cloudy water and repeat. If you do this until the water is mostly clear, your sand will be very course, and it won't kick up. Course sand is nice, but it doesn't always look as good as fine sand. Fine sand can make the tank cloudy if it gets massively disturbed, but in the end, it always sinks or gets sucked up, leaving the tank clear again.

ps. putting a sponge on the filter intake will help catch a lot of the debris. It's easier to clean the sponge than the innards of the filter, plus sand may damage the impeller

pss. simply fixing a plant or moving a rock shouldn't make the whole tank cloudy

[SpruceGruve]

Sand will settle and your filter should clear the cloudiness but don't go to deep with sand cause when sand compacts enough and traps waste in it, methane gas bubbles can form and be released when sand is shifted. Keep sand shallow.

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This technically can be true,but if you have some Malaysian trumpet snails in the sand they stir up the sand preventing gas pockets.



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[AbbeysDad]

First, as Glabe describes, sand should be well washed/rinsed to remove fines (dust like particles of sand). Many have success with play sand. I am using [well rinsed] pool filter sand. You 'can' use a depth of 1", but I prefer deep sand of around 3" or a bit more as it makes for an excellent bio-filter. A key is to LEAVE SAND UNDISTURBED as much as possible so detritus/mulm stays on the surface. If organic matter gets stirred deep in sand, anaerobic decomposition can occur creating 'black sand' and hydrogen sulfide gas.
Some believe that Malaysian Trumpet Snails prevent this, however, MTS require oxygen and only burrow in the upper inch or so where oxygen is already plentiful. It is best to leave sand undisturbed!

The best part about sand is that unlike gravel, detritus/mulm collects on the surface and there is rarely any uneaten food. The detritus can be left to slowly decay (and feed plants if they exist) or can be easily removed by hovering a siphon just above the surface.

I've used gravel and switched to [deep] sand and find that sand is much better. Some of this may be due to the nature of pool filter sand as some sands are perhaps too fine grained and compacts making it less effective for a deep sand application.

Footnote: Deep sand was fist pioneered by our salt water hobbyist friends where live sand and live rocks are essential tools in reducing unwanted nitrates.

[kj5kb]

What he said ^^^^

Pool filter sand is a good choice, and it is cheap vs most aquarium substrates. It has zero nutrients (for plants) in it, but after 6 months or so the fish waste and other detritus will decay and make the sand fertile. I planted a bunch of vals in new Pool filter sand; they didnt do much for the first 6 months but then took off and spread very well.

Root tabs may be a good choice initially til the sand becomes more fertile.

[discuspaul]

As a couple of the others have alluded to above, the problem very simply lies with the type of sand you buy.

If you get any type of play sand, or any other inexpensive type sand at the big box stores, you're very likely going to get sand that is very fine-grained, not very dense or uniform in size, readily compacts to a negative extent, and is generally full of dust, dirt, grit, and grime.
It's really a chore to rinse it out properly & well, will likely continue to cloud water as it gets disturbed, will free-float into the water column, get into filter assemblies and clog them, and will easily get siphoned out when vacuuming.

Good quality quartz-based silica pool filter sand obtained from a pool supply store will do none of that - in fact I don't even need to rinse mine, and it doesn't cloud the water at all.

[808_fairladyz]

First, as Glabe describes, sand should be well washed/rinsed to remove fines (dust like particles of sand). Many have success with play sand. I am using [well rinsed] pool filter sand. You 'can' use a depth of 1", but I prefer deep sand of around 3" or a bit more as it makes for an excellent bio-filter. A key is to LEAVE SAND UNDISTURBED as much as possible so detritus/mulm stays on the surface. If organic matter gets stirred deep in sand, anaerobic decomposition can occur creating 'black sand' and hydrogen sulfide gas.
Some believe that Malaysian Trumpet Snails prevent this, however, MTS require oxygen and only burrow in the upper inch or so where oxygen is already plentiful. It is best to leave sand undisturbed!

The best part about sand is that unlike gravel, detritus/mulm collects on the surface and there is rarely any uneaten food. The detritus can be left to slowly decay (and feed plants if they exist) or can be easily removed by hovering a siphon just above the surface.

I've used gravel and switched to [deep] sand and find that sand is much better. Some of this may be due to the nature of pool filter sand as some sands are perhaps too fine grained and compacts making it less effective for a deep sand application.

Footnote: Deep sand was fist pioneered by our salt water hobbyist friends where live sand and live rocks are essential tools in reducing unwanted nitrates.

Good insight, very informative. Never accord to me that aggressive syphoning of sand could lead to dead spots in it by allowing waste to get deeper into sand. For me though, still not worth the risk after losing a bunch of geo's to the gases emitted.

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[Bonniegiff]

I can see everyone is saying pool filter sand is one of the best to use. My son already bought Aragonite sand by CarbSea. It was on sale for a good price so he thought he should get it. The bag tells me it is sugar sized. What do you all think, is this sand so fine that it will be cloudy all the time or will it settle over time? He is going to have Brichardis in this tank and this sand is recomended for African Cichlids.
Thanks for all your help.

[Glabe]

it works just fine. it's just not appealing to many because of the high price. Remember that this particular sand will make your water very hard, so pay extra attention to the cichlids' previous water chemistry, and acclimate slowly if it's different