How Do I Put Sand In My Tank?

[Teri]

I've just got 3 loaches, as well as some corys, and as the loaches keep trying to bury themselves in the gravel. I want to put some sand into the tank for them, but do I need to have just sand in there, or can i keep some of the gravel as well? I was thinking half and half would look good. Also, how do I go about putting the sand in. I know it has to be washed, do i have to remove the fish, siphon out the water etc? Any advice gratefully received.

 

[Arimus]

I've got a mix of gravel and sand...

Wash the sand very very thoroughly and use a scoop to shovel up wet sand and slowly lower the scoop into the tank and slide the sand off - it will go cloudy for a very short time if you've washed it enough...

 

[Katchan]

I've heard of using a sand/gravel mix but in my opinion you might as well just use one or the other, if you want to have part sand part gravel the sand starts to mix with the gravel over time (how long depends on your fish and how careful you do water changes) one way around this is to use a piece of perspex or similar or border off a section of tank, if its cut just above the line of substrate you shouldnt have many problems or there pure sand or pure gravel of course

Step one, choose how you wish set up sand and or gravel

Step two, wash sand VERY well

Step three, remove all fish and water from tank

Step four, - if using sand/gravel mix, remove 50% gravel, mix in your sand
-if using other options remove part or all gravel, add sand

Step five, using a bowl or similar resting on tank bottom (this helps minmise water disturbance) fill tank about three quarters, add plants, rocks etc, fill tank rest of way

Step six, turn heater/filter back on

Step seven, after water clears add fish

HTH

Andrew

 

[tmack]

I've been thing abiut a sand tank myself - never had one. What's the best method to wash the sand - in a bucket of water by sloshing it around, pouring off the top & repeating till the water is relatively clear? That's what I do with new gravel.

 

[natural blue nina]

tmack - that worked for me! I think i rinsed it twice - added to the tank at it was clear almost immediately!

 

[tmack]

tmack - that worked for me! I think i rinsed it twice - added to the tank at it was clear almost immediately!

OK - thanks!

 

[Arimus]

Yep, I did the rinse in a bucket until the water went clear as soon as I stopped swishing it around.

I also didn't remove my fish before putting the sand in, just took out the normal water change volume of water, added the sand with a scoop and smoothed it out, the sand settled very quickly, refilled the tank as normal.

 

[Teri]

I've heard of using a sand/gravel mix but in my opinion you might as well just use one or the other, if you want to have part sand part gravel the sand starts to mix with the gravel over time (how long depends on your fish and how careful you do water changes) one way around this is to use a piece of perspex or similar or border off a section of tank, if its cut just above the line of substrate you shouldnt have many problems or there pure sand or pure gravel of course

Step one, choose how you wish set up sand and or gravel

Step two, wash sand VERY well

Step three, remove all fish and water from tank

Step four, - if using sand/gravel mix, remove 50% gravel, mix in your sand
-if using other options remove part or all gravel, add sand

Step five, using a bowl or similar resting on tank bottom (this helps minmise water disturbance) fill tank about three quarters, add plants, rocks etc, fill tank rest of way

Step six, turn heater/filter back on

Step seven, after water clears add fish

HTH

Andrew

I've got some really big pieces ofslate, i was thinking of using those to keep the sand and gravel separate. Do plants grow as well in sand as they do on gravel?

 

[Katchan]

I've got some really big pieces ofslate, i was thinking of using those to keep the sand and gravel separate. Do plants grow as well in sand as they do on gravel?

Slate should do the trick, as for plants in gravel, the options I used were fertiliser tabs around the base of the plants and or liquid fertiliser for your tank, the tabs work out cheaper (at least me anyway). There is another way you can put some peat or some other stuff that I cant remember (help anyone LOL) in a thin layer before you add the sand

Andrew

PS - depending what fish you have, my cories used to push the fish poo around the bases of the plants when the swam around, which helps the plants too.

 

[Torrean]

check the pinned topics. there are some great topics on sand. http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=141592