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Need Answer Quick! My 4 ft tank spung a leak and I've drained it, have fish in a 1 ft tank, resealed my 4 ft tank and was about to put the old gravel in when I thought can I use sand? Can I? If so what sand is appropriate. I live in AUST. Thanks for any help in this matter

Fish are Fun not Food!

You CAN use sand, but you have to be very careful of what type it is, if it compacts, and if it dosent get blown around too much by the filter. It will ruin an HOB with a lot of flow, and if it compacts, lethal anerobic bacteria start building up their anerobic poison gas. You have to maintain it a whole lot, and you really need some gravel stirrirs, like Malaysian Trumpet Snails or some burrowing creatures. If you decide to get white sand, gunk will start building up and make it look tarnished, especially when the bottom compacts and becomes brown. Also, it isnt advised for water plants as their roots might not grow in denseley compacted sand. Personally, i would go for the Tahitian Black Moon Sand, made by Caribsea. It comes in a package with a big stone Tiki statue picture on it. It is slightly larger grained than the fine white sand, and it looks better as it is black. Just be sure to maintain it very well, or else it could come back to haunt you.

Your choice. Personally i would go for sand in only small tanks as the maintenace is very hard in larger tanks. Your tank will cycle though, so be very careful!!!

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Thanks for that. I have a rather expensive ehiem external cannister and I like the fact that it just keeps going and going and going, so I might not go for sand after all. It's just that the gravel I have does not help the poor old corys barbels which get ground down to stumps! To that point is there any preferred gravel (size or mixture) that corys don't mind?

Fish are Fun not Food!

Small pea sized roung gravel is ideal for Corydoras, but personally i prefer to have sand, for my Corydoras.

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Hi there,
I had the same worries about doing sand in my tank,
but I finally went ahead and did tahitian moon sand in my 25g tall tank. It is amazing. It looks fabulous, is easy to clean and doesnt fluff up into the water column easily.
Every 3rd day I run a finger through it, and once a week I skim over it with a gravel vac after a vigorous stir with a finger.
Would like to do all my tanks with this eventually.


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I see you found your answer quickly. If you are using a good Eheim Canister the sand particles would cut your impeller to pieces very quickly plus other parts of the filter.

The answer is yes it can be done but personally would not even thing about it I also have a Eheim Pro11.

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Keith

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I have plain old kid's play sand in my tank. I haven't had any problems with it except that because of the color it always looks a bit dirty, especially when it settles onto plant leaves. It does look natural and my cories have amazing, long, healthy whiskers! Another option would be pool filter sand, available in a variety of grain sizes. Both are extremely cheap. I think SeaChem is making a Flourite sand now too, so if you have plants that could be an option. Whatever you do, make sure you rinse it really well before it goes into the tank. You can save some of your old gravel in pantyhose and leave it in the tank for a while if you are worried about a cycle problem. Might help...

As I said earlier, i love tahitian moon sand black. Looks like black sugar crystals and is very modern. Another option is to use a fine prefilter sponge or pantyhose on the intake tube. It will save your filter, and make cleaning a breeze. In fact, i am going to try it my self on my 10g and nano tank! Just get it a matching color.

EDIT: Just found out that the prefilter isnt such a great idea.....Oh well, as long as you dont have too much flow, it wont be lifted into the water, as the TM sand is a lot larger of a grain size than regular play or white sand.

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Goby

Before I finished reading your reply I was already in the mode to tell you that those pre filters are actually not worth the money if used over the long term as they block up quickly and effect the efficiency of the filter. If they must be used they will require removing and cleaning every day.
Then when it is removed for cleaning and the filter is not turned off remember it only takes one grain of sand to start the cutting process.

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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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Thank you all for your time & feedback and after much consideration I have gone for the pea sized gravel, so finger's crossed my Cory's will be happier. Thanks again for your time and suggestions.

Dr Phil was once asked "why did the chicken cross the road?"

He's still writing his answer!

Fish are Fun not Food!

well personally im replacing my pea gravel with sand (coral sand to be exact), firstly because im trying to get rid of a bba problem, secondly because im having african rift lake cichlids, and thirdly i think it looks good. i was going to upgrade my filtration to have 2 seperate filters 1 for mechanical and 1 for biological but the sand might get too disturbed to im a bit right now. and the cichlidsd like to dig and send bits of sand everywhere. might just get a cheap internal power filter from big w. pretty much disposable for $20 for a 700lph filter with media and spray bar kit.

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Hi Bubblebrain,
(That "sounds" disrespectful - sorry).
While Coral sand will work, the goal of it all is to
maintain the pH of the tank at 8 or above. Coral sand
is primarily Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) and not much else.

The water in the Rift Region percolates through carbonates
and other rocks that add other minerals to the mix. It is
this lack of Magnesium and other trace elements that the
fish have acclimated to and require.

Truly great Rift tanks use limestone rocks
for caves and to mark off territories.
They also use either crushed dolomite, or
crushed limestone as the substrate.
If you really want to use coral sand, then I'd suggest
the limestone hard-scape along with some crushed oyster
shells. You can buy a bag of crushed oyster shells for
just pennies at any feed-n-seed store. Mix the sand
and "Some" oyster shells together for a very interesting
looking substrate. If you choose straight Crushed
Oyster shells for substrate, it looks like "rubble" at the
base of a reef.

I would not use "Just" coral sand to house these fish.

Frank


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well frank id put the coral sand in a week ago from now and all the rocks so its a bit hard to take all the rocks out (there are alot of them) and then take the sand out. just going to leave it in. i think it looks good and i asked around at various aquarium shops and they said go for it. it also recomends in a book i got to use coral sand for a rift lake aquarium.

for the minerals and such couldnt you put in rift lake salts?

edit: i just realised the frist paragraph seems a bit harsh. i did not mean it to be like that. i was no good at english this year and its starting to show obviously

hi
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Hi,
No offense taken. I did not read it as harsh. I took it
at face value, meaning that you'd already done it, and
Yes, it would be foolish to tear it apart at this time.

As far as the Rift Salts are concerned, yes, you could use
them. There is, as the saying goes, "more than one way to
skin a cat." My only comment would be that it is the more
expensive route to travel. By selling you on the path you
have taken, they can now count on you constantly visiting
the store and purchasing that item, and also (perhaps) many
others as you walk past the tanks of Rift Fish.

Some of the Rift fish prefer a sandy bottom while others
don't. It would depend IMO, on what you have in the tank.

Should you tear the tank down for some reason, give some
thought to my suggestions as once the tank is put together
using the substrate and rocks I suggested, you don't have
to purchase any chemicals other than what is needed to
remove chloramine and chlorine to maintain the Rift
Environment.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

thanks frank, have a bit of a problem in the tank at the moment involving pure ammonia in the water quality section.

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