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i was looking to get fine/sand substrate but i also have snails in the tank. r they ok with a sand substrate

also where do people get sand substrates from? can i jsut get some from the beach?

No, I wouldn't take sand from the beach. First of all, that sand is saltwater, also, it's usually polluted. There are some commercially availible sands that work very well, I believe that Quickrete (Quickrite?) is one.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Best thing to do is visit a hardware or landscape store or even places such as wlmrt carry sand. Look for playsand, landscape sand, or pool filter sand. Of these playsand is generally the cheapest. Sand needs to be rinsed extreamly well in order to remove dust and smaller sand particles that will get into your filter causing damage.

Depending on the snail they may infact love it. I know my malaysian trumpet snails do, as do my corys .

One precaution with sand. It's more e to compacting than gravel is. This will cause many plantroots to be crushed, and if not turned on a regular basis (either by hand or thru use of MTS) it's more likely to form pockets of anerobic bacteria with is harmful to fish.

^_^
*Proud member of the Committee for Sig Line Restoration*

i have apple snails, do they like sand?

i will have fish that like to dig/burrow so will that be ok for turning over the sand?

do i just rinse the sand with a bucket and hose and hope 1/2 the sand doesnt spill out while i'm rinsing?

iv never used sand before and i'm also worried about it getting kicked up and caught in the filter. i have a HOB, is that ok?

so u reckon i should just give plants a miss babel?

Unless you have the lighting for the plants you might not have good luck with them anyway. Java moss and java fern can be tied to driftwood or rock and work in sand....other plants will work as well.

Make sure you rinse the sand VERY well. Keeping the substrate shallow, less than an inch or so, will help as well.

^_^
*Proud member of the Committee for Sig Line Restoration*

1 snails are usually fine with sand and in fact trumpet snails are recommended by some people to turn the sand over thus preventing anaerobic spots.
2 any fish that dig or root around are also a good thing.My clowns root around and flick the sand with their tales so often the top layer is never still.
3 rinse the sand by placing small amounts of it into a bucket cover with water swish around then slowly dump the water,repeat until the water is clear then do the same with the next batch of sand.it is a laborious task.
4 plants can be rooted to bogwood or rocks and can work if you place an area of gravel as the root bed and cover lightly with sand .this has worked well for me.

Gibson SG you know you want one!!

Quikrete Commercial sand, works great, doesn't need alot of rinsing, doesn't cloud the water, got it in 6 of my tanks and love it.

Turn off your filter when you siphon. When I clean the tanks I suck up a bunch of sand then when it's almost to the top plug the end of the hose with my thumb. this stops the siphon and lets all the sand fall back to the bottom but leaves the debris suspended in the siphon. I release my thumb as soon as the sand is out and suck out the debris.

I have MTS in all my tanks exept the Loach and Oscar tanks. they work great. The way I clean also keeps the sand stirred up.

I divided a tank with a rock and put down gravel so I could plant part of it and it seems to be working except some of the gravel gets on the sand side when I clean.

Have fun, Mike

I agree, If you position the bucket(maybe on a chair or something similar so you can reach the end of the hose with your hand and thumb while still moving around the vac end. I have fine substrate and using your thumb to control water flow through the siphon is definitely the best way.