Have A Question About Using Sand?

[HannahBear77]

so after my brother decided to kill our cichilids by washing the tank out with SOAP a couple years back i decided to get a new tank and do tropical fish instead
but im not liking how the rocks are looking and personally i dont like rocks and im wanting to go a more natural look so i was thinking bout doing sand, im not gonna do real plants yet im going to wait when my tank reaches one year and try it out, so im sticking with fake plants for now so my questions are:

*does it matter if you use fake or real plants with sand?

*what kind of sand is there to use?



im kinda new at this idea because when i was younger we usually just did the basic fake plants and rock but now that im 19 ive been wanting to try out things so this is one of them




and i will admit i over stocked my tank a little maybe a lot now thinking bout it but every one is getting along now and there is no fin nipping any more little FYI my tiger barbs arent the fin nippers in the bunch before you start jumping to conclusions it would be my danios i caught them picking on my neons yes i know it would be a cause of to many fish in the tank

2 tiger barbs
2 zebra danios
2 serpae
2 black skirt tetra's
2 red eye
2 glow tetras
3 white clouds
1 cory cat
1 pleco
4 neon tertas

 

[mike455555]

argos play sand is the cheapest out there for £3 for 15kg... you just need to wash it:
fill half a bucket with sand.
run water
stir sand .
let it settle for 1 min drain water
repeat until the water runs clear
(slowly decrease the time you leave it to settle... so it settles fast and use 2 buckets, gets it done quicker)

no it doesn't matter if you use live or fake plants with sand... live plants root well in it and fake ones... well they can sit on it and look pretty (i dont like fake plants when real ones are better)

you say you dont like rocks... is this big rocks or gravel?

 

[StandbySetting]

so after my brother decided to kill our cichilids by washing the tank out with SOAP a couple years back i decided to get a new tank and do tropical fish instead
but im not liking how the rocks are looking and personally i dont like rocks and im wanting to go a more natural look so i was thinking bout doing sand, im not gonna do real plants yet im going to wait when my tank reaches one year and try it out, so im sticking with fake plants for now so my questions are:

*does it matter if you use fake or real plants with sand?

*what kind of sand is there to use?



im kinda new at this idea because when i was younger we usually just did the basic fake plants and rock but now that im 19 ive been wanting to try out things so this is one of them




and i will admit i over stocked my tank a little maybe a lot now thinking bout it but every one is getting along now and there is no fin nipping any more little FYI my tiger barbs arent the fin nippers in the bunch before you start jumping to conclusions it would be my danios i caught them picking on my neons yes i know it would be a cause of to many fish in the tank

2 tiger barbs
2 zebra danios
2 serpae
2 black skirt tetra's
2 red eye
2 glow tetras
3 white clouds
1 cory cat
1 pleco
4 neon tertas

Personally before changing to sand I'd recommend fixing your stocking list, those that I've high lighted in bold all prefer to be in groups of 6 or more, so you may want to remove some in order to up the existing numbers.

Also do you know the type of Pleco? If it is a common Pleco you'll find that it'll soon outgrow your tank.

What is the tank volume?

I'd recommend Argos play sand too, oh and welcome to the forum

 

[lloyd]

argos play sand is perfect but most childrens play sand or silver sand is normally fine as long as you rinse it out really really really well. LOL on your stock list. some else has already tried to put u right so i wont go there but i will add that u really really really should listen to the people above me about your stock list cuz keeping them all in 2's is a case of animal cruelty

also just make sure sand is lime stone free but argos is

 

[HannahBear77]

argos play sand is the cheapest out there for £3 for 15kg... you just need to wash it:
fill half a bucket with sand.
run water
stir sand .
let it settle for 1 min drain water
repeat until the water runs clear
(slowly decrease the time you leave it to settle... so it settles fast and use 2 buckets, gets it done quicker)

no it doesn't matter if you use live or fake plants with sand... live plants root well in it and fake ones... well they can sit on it and look pretty (i dont like fake plants when real ones are better)

you say you dont like rocks... is this big rocks or gravel?

ya I'm figuring out u really don't like the fake but I went with fake until I get a job cus im using my moms money right now....it's the gravel that I don't like I don't mind the bigger rocks

 

[mike455555]

... plants don't cost that much... (look on the donations on here)

what type of plants were you thinking of getting? (i know the feeling of using my mums money... CO2 system for xmas =D - im only 18 myself)

 

[HannahBear77]

so after my brother decided to kill our cichilids by washing the tank out with SOAP a couple years back i decided to get a new tank and do tropical fish instead
but im not liking how the rocks are looking and personally i dont like rocks and im wanting to go a more natural look so i was thinking bout doing sand, im not gonna do real plants yet im going to wait when my tank reaches one year and try it out, so im sticking with fake plants for now so my questions are:

*does it matter if you use fake or real plants with sand?

*what kind of sand is there to use?



im kinda new at this idea because when i was younger we usually just did the basic fake plants and rock but now that im 19 ive been wanting to try out things so this is one of them




and i will admit i over stocked my tank a little maybe a lot now thinking bout it but every one is getting along now and there is no fin nipping any more little FYI my tiger barbs arent the fin nippers in the bunch before you start jumping to conclusions it would be my danios i caught them picking on my neons yes i know it would be a cause of to many fish in the tank

2 tiger barbs
2 zebra danios
2 serpae
2 black skirt tetra's
2 red eye
2 glow tetras
3 white clouds
1 cory cat
1 pleco
4 neon tertas

Personally before changing to sand I'd recommend fixing your stocking list, those that I've high lighted in bold all prefer to be in groups of 6 or more, so you may want to remove some in order to up the existing numbers.

Also do you know the type of Pleco? If it is a common Pleco you'll find that it'll soon outgrow your tank.

What is the tank volume?

I'd recommend Argos play sand too, oh and welcome to the forum

Well I already got attached to them and I don't have the money to restock them right now and their doing fine with the others, it's a common pleco and ik they will out grow their tank cus my brother has one for his turtle and it's getting to big the tank now And I'm not sure what the volume is

 

[mike455555]

do different types of tetra school together? (just an idea... not sure if they do or not)

 

[HannahBear77]

argos play sand is perfect but most childrens play sand or silver sand is normally fine as long as you rinse it out really really really well. LOL on your stock list. some else has already tried to put u right so i wont go there but i will add that u really really really should listen to the people above me about your stock list cuz keeping them all in 2's is a case of animal cruelty

also just make sure sand is lime stone free but argos is

Ya Ik were having a sail where I live and I'm getting a 30 gallon hopefully and once i get that I'm getting more

... plants don't cost that much... (look on the donations on here)

what type of plants were you thinking of getting? (i know the feeling of using my mums money... CO2 system for xmas =D - im only 18 myself)

I'm not sure what plants to get

 

[mike455555]

that depends on how you want it to look

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The plants also will depend on your lighting.

 

[mike455555]

The plants also will depend on your lighting.

can allways get another bulb

 

[HannahBear77]

The plants also will depend on your lighting.

can allways get another bulb

Ya I will have to look into plants because I told my older brother I doing sand and he said I might as well get real plants if I'm doing sand

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The deal with the lighting is that you want your plants to match your lighting. Granted you can always get a different bulb, but if you get a low light bulb, you need low light requirement plants. What you really don't want is plants that need high light under low light. It just doesn't go well. Low light plants under high lights will be okay, but will have some issues. High light plants in low light will die and rot.

 

[HannahBear77]

well ya i knew that certain plants have to have certain lighting