Many questions

[ccg]

Hello everyone, hope you are all doing well today. I have a few questions to ask so please bare with me.


I have recently decided to switch my 35 gallon tank over to sand.

Currently I am using a undergravel filter but I do not relay on it as a good form of filteration so removing it is not a problem. I have several other filters. When I pull this out, along with the gravel will I be losing a lot of my benefical bacteria?

Can I use sponge filters in a tank with sand?

I plan on using pool filter sand, which contains silicia I believe, is this alright?

Recently I setup a 10 gallon tank with sand to see how things would go for me - so far so good. One of my concerns/questions is, there is hardley any fish waste (poop) or flakes etc on the surface of the sand when it comes time to clean it. Why is that? Are my corys stirring it up and the crap gets burried? When I gravel vac my 35 gallon I get tons of stuff, but maybe this is due to the UG filter?

My overall plan is to chagne a heavly stocked 35 gallon tank to sand, and then add lives plants (never had live plants before). I used play sand in my 10 gal and considering it in my 35 gal as well, so I may end up doing that.

Also, sand is supose to be stirred around once in a while so no gas builds up under the sand correct? Well how do you go about doing that if you have a lot of live plants?

Thanks for all the help

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Im pretty sure that removing the gravel and the UG filter will remove most of, if not all the beneficial bacteria.

I just use a fluval 4+ on my 15gal with sand, it does the job but I have noticed it clogged up at the bottom as the filter casing sticks into the sand a little because the filter is way more than whats needed for my tank size.

I've also heard that sand isnt all that good for plants as it suffocates the roots? Im not 100% on that, so if someone wants to clarify.

You are correct in saying about the sand needing stirring, I'm not sure how you would go about doing that in a planted tank. I know malayasian trumpet snails I think it is will dig in the sand and turn it over, so they will help. They dont eat plants either. And any loach that like to dig will also help, such as khuli loach. Other than that all you can do really is stir up the parts that dont have plants in them.

One thing you could do is to keep some of your gravel in a stocking or something that will hold it and allow water to pass through, and leave it in the tank for a few weeks so that not all of your benefical bacteria is gone. That way your new filters will have time to mature.

Hope that helps a little

 

[Undawada]

Congratulations on switching to sand! I did that myself last year.

Play sand or pool sand is great for your tank. Silica is inert and will not harm your fish at all.

I wouldn't use an under gravel filter with sand. I don't like under gravel filters at all, actually.

You do have to stir your sand every week or so to make sure it doesn't get too compacted and build gas bubbles. The best time to do this is right after a water change so you don't mix in any surface gunk.

If you are concerned about digging around in your soil with live plants, get some Malaysian Trumpet Snails. They don't get very big, and won't eat your plants (unless they're dead). They will dig around the soil during the day and come out at night to forage.

They look like this :

They reproduce pretty quickly, so you might have to remove some of them from time to time. I've had my snails since October and they do a wonderful job of stirring the sand.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You will lose some of the good bacteria but it is not that important as the majority of it and the most important stuff resides in the tanks filter.
I have sand in all my tanks and live plants and they do fine, i just use my hand to stir up the sand on a weekly basis. Stirring up the sand is important as otherwise it sets rock hard- you cannot rely on loachs or corys to do this though because they only affect the first 1cm of sand layer.
If you use some "flora boost" by interpet your plants will grow well.

 

[ccg]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it.

Does anyone have experience with live plants and sand? I would like more info on this.

I plan on removing the UGF during the swap to sand. I only use it right now because it is there, currently I have 3 aqua clear 200's on the tank so I don't relay on the ugf.

What I will do is put as much of the gravel into stockings as I can and let it sit in the tank for a while. Currently I have a lot of barbs in the tank and they seem to be pretty hardy fish, so hopefully everyone will make it during the change.

Also, can someone give me a link to a good DIY co2 thing, or am I better off purchasing something if I plan on getting a few live plants?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Just use the flora boost by interpet on the plants, the reason why plants don't do so well in sand is that waste and organic matter cannot sink into the sand like gravel to feed the plants so well and so they can become a bit starved but the flora boost will offer the nutrients the plants need to grow well
I would stir the sand up thoroughly with your hands once a week to help keep it fresh.

 

[Undawada]

I have live plants and sand.

My plants do quite well with the sand, I'd say even better than with gravel.
Just make sure to mix it every once and a while, otherwise you'll get compacted sand and I'd imagine it'd be bad for plant root systems (as well as other problems!).

If you are running aquaclear filters, most of your bacteria are in the filter media.

You will lose some bacteria changing the substrate and losing the UGF, but when I changed substrate I didn't even get a measurable volume of ammonia or nitrite.

I wouldn't worry about a mini-cycle, if that's your conern.

I did, however, add a stocking of my old gravel to the tank just to be safe.

Good luck!

 

[Undawada]

OH forgot to add,

for the CO2, it is only helpful if your lighting is sufficient. If you have 2 or more watts per gallon, you should look into Co2.

 

[ccg]

From what I can tell having a tank with sand will not be that much more work then having a tank with gravel. Has anyone hear swapped to sand and really regretted it?

My biggest worry I guess is the swap, but as long as I clean the sand very well before hand I can’t see this as being a big problem.

The fish I currently have are:

6 cherry barbs
6 golden barbs
5 tiger barbs
1 small pleco
1 red-tailed black shark

All these fish should do fine with sand right?

 

[ccg]

Tokis-Phoenix,

This flora boost product you are talking about, it isnt in anyway harmful or stressful for the fish is it?

Also, what does it cost, aprox?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Its not harmful to fish and can be used with the majority of other meds if you ever need to use them, i just used half the recommended dose in my tanks and my plants are growing great now so i don't think you need alot of it, it doesn't cost much, like only about £3 for a bottle but i can't say for sure as i havn't bought any for ages cos i havn't needed it since the first couple of doses
It doesn't cause algae either which is nice

 

[ccg]

Thanks,

I'll have to look into getting some of that. And I wish it did cause algae, my pleco would love it

I havnt even started to look into what kind of plants I should be getting, but I have been looking at members photos of planted tanks and I need to have one now lol.

Undawada, you said if my lighting is good then I should look into c02? You last post kind of confused me.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I've just found the leaflet for flora boost;
a. it can be used with any other interpet treatment plus Bioactive tapsafe and Filter Care products.
b. It will slightly stain the water for a few hours then clear naturally after use(although my tanks either didn't stain at all or only did for 1hr, looks like there's tannins from bogwood in the water i.e kinda yellowy).
c. It doesn't affect the biological filter in the tank

Hope this info helps

 

[ccg]

Tokis-Phoenix,

do you use c02 in your tank?

I don't think I have great lighting either, so maybe plants won't workout in my tank?

 

[Undawada]

With respect to the CO2. There is no point in adding CO2 to your tank unless your lights are good enough.

The CO2 helps the plants grow and photosynthesize, but they need light to process the CO2.

If you have at least 2 WPG (watts per gallon) then you should look into getting CO2, any less than 2 WPG and it won't make any difference.

edit : I just saw your last post, you can buy low light plants that will do fine in "normal" aquarium light ( I assume normal means flourescent light at or below 1 wpg ). They wouldn't THRIVE the same way as they would with more light, but it's worthwhile to look into plants such as java moss, moneywort, hygrophilia or anubias.

Good luck!