helllo,i have a 30 gal. with about 20 mollies and a 10 with about 30 fry mollies.now i am getting a 55 for x-mas and i am putting the 30 gal. mollies in the 55gal and the 10 gal in the 30.now i kinda like the way sand looks and i am thinking about using sand in them.what do you think?how hard is it to vaccume?or shoud i use gravel?do mollies like sand?what kind of sand?thank you very much
sand or gravel
- Thread starter jdcreigh
- Start date
Yeah Home Depot has Quicrete's medium pre washed playsand, All purpose sand & silica sand. I was going to go with the silica sand but started to read the label & it said if you inhale that stuff it can kill you. That all I had to read. So I went with the play sand. I have not use it yet so I dont know how well it works I wanted to get some pool filter sand but could not find any. Well good luck.
I used the Quickrete gravel in my tank, got a 50lb bag for $2.88 at Home Depot. Make sure you wash it REALLY well to get the dust off if you decide to go that route, I dont know about the sand, but I would wash it to be safe. I didnt wash it at first and when I filled the tank it was just a dusty mess, had to drain it and start over...
If you're anywhere near Delaware, I have about 30 lbs of gravel I'm using as a doorstop if you want it.
If you're anywhere near Delaware, I have about 30 lbs of gravel I'm using as a doorstop if you want it.
My tank has mollies and I use pool filter sand from Home Depot in mine. It's cheap, easy to vacuum and I have had no problems with it. Pictures of it are in my sig link and on my Custome Member Page link off to the side on the left under my user info.
As far as tips: Rinse it thoroughly before adding it to a new tank. I split a 50 pound bag between 2 five gallon buckets and let the water hose run in them until they overflowed. I left it like that a while, letting all the lighter stuff wash away. Then, I used the hose like a spoon and stirred the bucket with the hose, letting more lighter sand rinse away int the yard. I did this 7-10 times until I could stir the sand and it would all settle quickly to reveal clear water. After this, I scooped the wet sand into my new tank bottom a little at a time, sort of sculpted it into the proper shape, then I added water via 5 gallon buckets using my hand to disperse the water into many rivulets instead of one giant pour from the bucket. It took two of us pouring the bucket to accomplish this well, since the tank rim is rather high.
As far as regular maintenance goes, I gravel vac 1x/week and I gently skim the end of the vac tube just off the surface off the sand. This gets up any dead plant matter and fishy poo. When I go to refill my tank, I make sure I stir the sand up with the stream of water from my Python in order to keep the sand bed moving about to avoid anaerobic pockets. This will cloud your tank briefly, but usually it all settles after 20-30 minutes. Some folks suggest leaving the filters off while you do this, but I abuse the heck out of my two Penguin 125s because I always turn them on as soon as the water level is back to maximum again. No problems yet for me and I've had them a year now.
That's about it. I love the choice of sand and I doubt I ever use anything else for a show tank unless I find a source of cheap, coarse black sand. =) Enjoy!
As far as tips: Rinse it thoroughly before adding it to a new tank. I split a 50 pound bag between 2 five gallon buckets and let the water hose run in them until they overflowed. I left it like that a while, letting all the lighter stuff wash away. Then, I used the hose like a spoon and stirred the bucket with the hose, letting more lighter sand rinse away int the yard. I did this 7-10 times until I could stir the sand and it would all settle quickly to reveal clear water. After this, I scooped the wet sand into my new tank bottom a little at a time, sort of sculpted it into the proper shape, then I added water via 5 gallon buckets using my hand to disperse the water into many rivulets instead of one giant pour from the bucket. It took two of us pouring the bucket to accomplish this well, since the tank rim is rather high.
As far as regular maintenance goes, I gravel vac 1x/week and I gently skim the end of the vac tube just off the surface off the sand. This gets up any dead plant matter and fishy poo. When I go to refill my tank, I make sure I stir the sand up with the stream of water from my Python in order to keep the sand bed moving about to avoid anaerobic pockets. This will cloud your tank briefly, but usually it all settles after 20-30 minutes. Some folks suggest leaving the filters off while you do this, but I abuse the heck out of my two Penguin 125s because I always turn them on as soon as the water level is back to maximum again. No problems yet for me and I've had them a year now.
That's about it. I love the choice of sand and I doubt I ever use anything else for a show tank unless I find a source of cheap, coarse black sand. =) Enjoy!