Children's Play Sand

[jonnyf84]

well maybe my cories were just lazy sods then, nah corys deffinately aren't lazy, i had a internal filter at the time and a high tank so maybe they couldn't stir it up that high.

I washed two 15KG bags in about 45 mins and didn't have any problems with cloudiness, once the yellow gunk has gone your good to go. I just used the wash and drain method in a bucket.

 

[malakye]

When I was washing mine I just left the hose running slow enough not to kick sand out the bucket and left it running constantly, I went through every now and again and swirled the whole load round with my hands and moved the hose to another spot and left it going. I left mine longer due to moving my room around and moving the tank etc.
Sand does look dirtier than gravel because poo does sit on top of it, I have corys who just seem to make the problem worse lol, but I just vac more often, I found with gravel I would say oh it can wait another day or 2 with sand I can't put it off as easily so my tank gets more attention which can only be a good thing.
As for plants I find the sand holds the plants better than gravel does. In my shrimp tank (Gravel) I an constantly knocking plants out yet I very rarely disturb plants in the sand. Plants seem to have rooted better in the sand.

Spesh your tank is lovely.

 

[jonnyf84]

As for plants I find the sand holds the plants better than gravel does.

Oh i wish that was the case with mine, my bloody parrot reaked havoc, the pic in my sig is the tank i had sand in (with that amount of plants), then i got my parrot, 2 week later i had no plants left!!! I had him for about 2 months and it was my favorite fish of all time (so much character, a vicious bugger though) but he just had to go - not suitable for planted tanks

If you only keep small fish then i imagine sand would hold plants very well

 

[stevo_gti]

thanks for the info everyone and you tanks look great i definitely want to give sand a try now it looks good, i have 3 corys so i hope they will keep the sand clean in the same way everyone elses do think i will go for the lighter coloured sand

also is there a gravel vac that dont take the water out the tank but still takes all the crap oout the gravel? i have a syphon/gravel vac at the min but by the time i done the gravel and got most the poo an stuff out its draind half my tank lol so i could do with something that will alow me to vac the gravel without having to do a water change aswel

 

[always4lora]

i've got sand it's great , easy to clean once it's in and only took an hour to clean , took around 24 hours to totally settle

 

[jonnyf84]

also is there a gravel vac that dont take the water out the tank but still takes all the crap oout the gravel? i have a syphon/gravel vac at the min but by the time i done the gravel and got most the poo an stuff out its draind half my tank lol so i could do with something that will alow me to vac the gravel without having to do a water change aswel

the age old problem with sand, especially if you have a large surface area and a small volume. I had this problem, once siphoned into the bucket the muck and sand will settle at the bottom of it, then i would tip all the water i could back in the tank and then siphon some more. I dont think there is any kind of vac that does what your asking - i'm not sure how it would be possible - it would be a damn good invention though

 

[MermaidMel]

Best way to clean sand is to swoosh the net about above the grub and it lifts up slowly and then net it and chuck it, so easy! I find sand much cleaner because with gravel the grub can down between the stones and needs a lot of vacuuming but with sand, what u see is mostly what u get

 

[stevo_gti]

wasnt sure if the battery ones with the nets on just sucked the water up and let it back into the tank through the net catching all the crap but obviously not lol

good idea with putting the water back in after doin the vac though johnny

 

[stevo_gti]

also is there a gravel vac that dont take the water out the tank but still takes all the crap oout the gravel? i have a syphon/gravel vac at the min but by the time i done the gravel and got most the poo an stuff out its draind half my tank lol so i could do with something that will alow me to vac the gravel without having to do a water change aswel

the age old problem with sand, especially if you have a large surface area and a small volume. I had this problem, once siphoned into the bucket the muck and sand will settle at the bottom of it, then i would tip all the water i could back in the tank and then siphon some more. I dont think there is any kind of vac that does what your asking - i'm not sure how it would be possible - it would be a damn good invention though

found one

http/www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/22977/product.web

 

[DanaLeChiffre]

Cant you also use a gravel cleaner?

Sucks up the dirty and waste food and you can use if to drain out the water you need for a water change. All you have to do is quickly suck up the waste and not to much sand. Right??

I seen a man cleaning out his tank this way.