sand advice....

F

firetank

calibration boy
Nov 27, 2002
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im upgrading to a bigger tank (36x18x12) and want to use sand instead of gravel for the substrate..

any advice on what type of sand\depth\grain size.. etc would be
much appreciated
:confused:
 
lateritic clay and plain construction sand

No it would be fine. But you'd still be lacking the colloidal clay you get in laterite, either unbaked (hypoallergenic kitty litter) or baked (Flourite or Shultz Soil Conditioner).

Don't wash all the good out of the laterite. It grabs phosphates and give root hairs something to grip.
 
I recently changed from the somewhat large aquarium gravel you get at Wal-Mart to swimming pool filter sand. My cories are loving it and it's much easier to keep clean. My LFS sells this for $9.99 for a 50lb bag, but it may be cheaper if you went to a pool or hardware store instead. I'm not doing live plants yet, so no idea how it would work with them. I didn't put a very thick layer in my tank, probably about half an inch to an inch. I don't keep my gravel level, the low spots give the fry a place to escape from being eaten when they get brave and swim too far away from their plants.

Note: If you change your substrate in a cycled tank, you will lose a good chunk of your bacteria and most likely have some ammonia spikes until it stabalizes again. I didn't have any real problems, but did have to monitor my ammonia levels and do more frequent partial water changes for a few weeks. I purchased some "Special Blend" from www.drsfostersmith.com which is a bacteria booster type product. I added this after I changed my gravel, but really have no idea if it was helpful or not. It did make me feel better at least :)
 
I'm just using a syphon gravel cleaner. The problem with the larger gravel was it never really got sucked up into the tube of the gravel cleaner so there would still be a LOT of debris left under the top layer of gravel.

I haven't changed out the substrate in the tank with the pl*co yet, hope he won't mind it.
 
a friend of mine has a pl*co in a sand substrate tank, and it's fine. you shouldnt just leave a bottom feeder to feed on the dirty substrate anyway, add sinking pellets or algae wafers or something ....

personally, i use playsand, from the local hardware store. it took awhile to wash, but IMO it was worth it. I looked into sand from the lfs, or pool filter sand. The lfs sand was just too expensive for me ($30 CDN for a 5 pound bag - I needed at least 15 pounds). And I couldn't find anywhere that carried pool filter sand in my area. So I went with the more hassle, less money route, of $2.50 for 10 pound bags. It has a nice tan look, and honestly, I'm not sure I would ever go any other route.

Good Luck! :)
 
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