Sand substrate in Oscar tank?

[Lynsey]

Can you put sand in an Oscar tank. I have an Oscar in a 75 gallon tank, and I was thinking about swiching the substrate. I currently have gravel. I like the look of sand, but I don't know if it is good in a tank with an Oscar? Will it really show up the poop? My gravel kind of camouflauges the poop. I do weekly gravel vacs though, so it is not really a problem. I just don't want the poop to be staring me in the face!! Will it get into the filter, since the Oscar digs and will probably kick it up? Also, how do you clean it, without sucking the gravel out? Does it pack down and create and anaerobic environment so that bad bacteria can grow? Sorry for all the questions, I just don't want to change out the gravel, and then realize I made a big mistake.

 

[firetank]

hi,

not so sure on the oscar part(dont see why not though),

any detritous sits on top of the sand and is visible, but when you vac you know that you aren't missing any...
my substrate was initially between 1 - 1 1\2", but i found some anaeobic spots when pruning plants.....keep it shallow i think.....
mine now is roughly 5mm....

the trick with cleaning is to just hover over the sand, the loose cr*P gets sucked in before and sand gets lifted,.....

ooopps forgot, if you do change you'll lose a lot of your beneficial bacteria on the gravel...
i read on here to put a large amount of the old gravel in a bag or somthing into the new tank till the bacteria re-populate the sand...

 

[Lynsey]

Thanks, I think I will stick with the gravel. I like the look of more substrate than one inch. I think the Oscar likes to dig, so I will leave well enough alone.