How Much Sand?

[evilchild]

i plan to put sand in my new tank which is a 260lt, i plan to buy 2 bags of sand which come in 20lb bags will two be enough or do you thinkit might take three or four?

also i plan to add some real plants of some sort, will these be ok in the tank on there own or will they need feeding before i add the fish?

 

[Spooky76]

Without the dimensions I dont know, its not the volume, its the surface area.

Try this !!!

[URL="http/www.garf.org/calculators/SandBedCalculator.asp"]http/www.garf.org/calculators/SandBedCalculator.asp[/URL]

 

[evilchild]

that did help a little, thanks. this tank is a bay fronted any idea how much this will effect the over all total? it came out as 70lbs when i entered the max width which is 18"

 

[3ndl3r]

well i managed two 2 foot tanks with an inch depth and i had 1/4 of a bag left. so thats 2x 24"x12" tanks.

don't know if that helps but thats what i got lol.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I can't remember how much sand i added to my tanks however if you are planning on having plants in the substrate it would be good to aim for a sand substrate of about 1-2inches depth. If you are having fish which like to burrow in sand in the tank like weather/dojo loaches, khuli loaches or bichirs etc then a sand depth of 3inches+ deep is good .

 

[3ndl3r]

actually i wouldnt recommend any more than 2 inches, anaerobic pockets will develop and these can cause problems. 2 inches would be fine for plants and burrowing fish.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

actually i wouldnt recommend any more than 2 inches, anaerobic pockets will develop and these can cause problems. 2 inches would be fine for plants and burrowing fish.

Ah some burrowing fish need a deep sand substrate to really thrive, i don't mean burrowing fish as in fish like corys, clown loaches, yoyo loaches etc which only clean and move the surface of the sand substrate, i mean proper burrowing fish that actually bury themselves in the substrate itself at times- a deep substrate is fine with such fish since it is always getting moved about by the fishes burrowing activities (and so anerobic pockets of gas don't develop in the substrate) and burrowing fish like weather/dojo loaches in particular love a substrate they can almost completely bury themselves in .

 

[3ndl3r]

oh right, thanks for claering that up tokis !