Gravel With A Sand Mound In Corner

[Faythee]

I am considering using playbox sand and building a hill of it in the back corner of my 75 gallon tank. I will be putting a tube of pvc in it to create a cave for my pictus catfish. Surrounding that would be gravel thru the rest of the tank. Do you think this would work, or will the sand eventually wash away and I will have a mess on my hands ???

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yep the sand will definately wash away, however you can create more lasting cool ripple and mound effects in soft fine sand if you direct a strong current from the filter at it .

 

[Faythee]

I don't think my filter will do that. I have an AquaClear power filter that hangs on the back. It does have a waterfall and you can adjust the flow rate. Other than that I will have a bubble wand going across the bottom backside.

After going to LFS today and seeing the price of gravel to fill a 75 gallon tank........I am probably going to go with all play sand and mix some fine black gravel through it. Thing is with rinsing it. How do you do that ? I figure put some at a time in 5 gallon bucket...add water...stir it up and let it settle back to the bottom. Then pour off water and put it in the tank wet ? This is gonna break my back, LOL

How many inches of sand do I put across the bottom ?

Why the need to rinse the sand when it is already sanitized ???