New Sand

[dbanner]

Hey everyone, I'm glad to say i picked up 20kgs of play sand earlier today (which was only £3) ready to clean and hopefully put into my tank tomorrow. I'm hoping my sterbai cories will be much happier with this instead of the current gravel i am using. I did not know that cories were not suitable for gravel until i joined this forum so thank you to everyone so far for all your advice

 

[minnnt]

You and your Cories will LOVE the sand!!

Make sure you wash really really well as it will cloud your water if you don't.

 

[fluttermoth]

Make sure you wash really really well

+1

And then wash it again, just to make sure! It is a PITA, but it's much better to spend the extra time washing before you get it in the tank raher than put it in too soon and wish you hadn't

 

[minnnt]

I have a tank with play sand and the water was very clear in the bucket... then added it to the tank and it wasn't that bad... or at least thats what i thought. 24 hours later it was still cloudy. Settled in the end especially after a few water changes. I used Unipac sand in my latest venture and it was much better. You get what you pay for. Play sand is a great substrate when on a budget, but i will be saving up a few more weeks when i next change.

 

[dbanner]

Ah its ok. As long as it does the job then its all good. I don't mind having to do a few water changes to get it looking clear if i need to (if its still not right after cleaning). Just want my cories (and other fish) to feel as settled as possilbe

 

[minnnt]

Good on ya!!

Don't forget to clean your filter a few days after to remove any sand particles it has picked up as it may damage your motor/propellor. If your filter has some filter wool in it then this will help immensely in catching any stray particles in your water.

 

[dbanner]

Yep i will do. My filter is an interpet pf4 and has long, rather thick sponges inside and from what iv noticed they catch quite a lot of muck and uneaten food etc. So far I'm happy with the tank and filter.

 

[minnnt]

Sounds good mate. Try and get some filter wool if you can if your filter doesn't have any, it really is fantastic stuff.

 

[dbanner]

Ok i will all this is still all new to me so I'm just trying to do what i can with the budget i have. Hopefully il get the hang of things soon but till then its mainly learning for me. I like seeing the tank coming along and seeing the fish' colours coming out etc. Hard feeling to explain but you probably know what i mean

 

[minnnt]

I know exactly what you mean. It is a great feeling. The thing you need to remember is that alot of fish keeping is all about trial and error really. You will experience ups and downs, fish deaths, fighting, aggressions, uncontrollable breeding etc but then when you get to see your fish in their homes that you have made you feel good about it all again. lol.

 

[dbanner]

That's exactly what i was trying to get at lol I'm on my 2nd tank now which is a 210 litre (46 gal) juwel bow front... Not the biggest or best out there but I'm happy with it. I haven't got the room to go bigger either. The 1st tank i had was a 100 litre rectangle with no lid (hood)... I had a few fish deaths there.... at the time i had Odessa barbs which decided they were going to try and be ninjas and 5 of them jumped out the tank and died I quickly learnt from this which is why my daughter now has the 100 litre with 4 new odessas (and i bought a lid) and i got the juwel

 

[minnnt]

Nothing to be ashamed of at all. My tank is 180 litres. It's not the size that counts its what you do with it that matters...

 

[dbanner]

Ye i see where your coming from that actually makes me feel better lol think my ideal size would be a 55 gal... Not sure why cos its only 9 gal more than i have which works out at 40 litres more.... Lol surely it wouldn't be worth the change...

 

[minnnt]

I'm sure it would... Would be better for your fish even if you didn't add any more fish.

 

[dbanner]

May consider gettin a 55 gal then. Won't be for a while but i think its always good to plan ahead and have an idea of what u want or how u would want ur tank to look. Makes things easier