Nothing to stir the sand?

[Donttouchthat]

Hey all,

I recently switched over from gravel to Pool Filter Sand. It looks much better, however nothing seems to want to dig in? My fire eel doesn't ever go under the sand, and neither do the kuhli loaches? I've heard of using snails, but I don't want them to multiply like crazy and leave me with a huge problem lol. Any suggestions?

 

[Eel Boy]

Thats weird
But now that i have sand my eel doesn;t bury either, can anyone explain this to me

 

[Becca]

Mine either! But I can't say that I'm disappointed, I have plenty of hiding places for my eels so that they can have shelter from everyone and I can still enjoy them! Much better than them burrowing...

But it does leave me wondering what i should do about stirring my sand.

 

[MrMashashin]

i'm thinking of gettinga skidmark eel. Erm or maybe its a tred eel. It only gets about maybe 6-7 inches long and it hides in or under anything

some eels prefer gravel becuase thats what they used since their birth in the breeding tanks

correct me if im wrong

 

[Becca]

Well, when I had my 3 eels in my 30 Gallon (while I was setting up my 75...) they would do NOTHING but stay in the gravel. Which kind of sucked because I never saw them. I moved them to the 75 tonight and they're always out now. Dunno!

 

[Donttouchthat]

Yeah my fire eel is pretty strange (not that im complaining). It NEVER hides. It is the most active fish/eel in my tank! Always swimming around and exploring!

However I think stirring the sand is going to suck, because it will cloud the water right? Thats why I would prefer something like snails digging gradually.

Thanks for the replies all! Any other suggestions?

 

[Sorrell]

I'm not sure I understand about the kuhlis...are you asking if they stay in the sand too or that yours never hide? If your asking the former I can tell you that I have three Kuhlis and I've never seen them If you're stating the latter, why not just stir the sand manually when you do water changes? I dig my siphon in and disturb it a bit and it works great

 

[Donttouchthat]

Thanks for the reply Sorrel. I was asking if they ever hide. Mine never hide, they just swim all over the bottom. I was under the impression that the siphon would suck up the sand?

 

[cutechic]

Thanks for the reply Sorrel. I was asking if they ever hide. Mine never hide, they just swim all over the bottom. I was under the impression that the siphon would suck up the sand?

The sand gets partially sucked up into the siphon, but I've never actually had sand siphoned out of the tank. Usually it creates a little spiral of sand, and when I stop siphoning, the sand falls out of the siphon and back into the tank. Does that make any sense?

 

[FishDan]

I've heard of using snails, but I don't want them to multiply like crazy and leave me with a huge problem lol. Any suggestions?

My suggestion regarding this is fairly simple: Don't overfeed. The snails that are best for this (Malaysian trumpet snail) will reproduce in relation to the amount of food fed them. If you are carefull not to overfeed, they won't reproduce like mad. I am still having trouble getting my 10 to reproduce!

Anyhow, if you don't want to use snails, there are about a million things you can do to manually stir your sand. A chopstick, a straw, your gravel vac (after you stop it's suction action. Digging it in while suctioning can cause lighter sand to be emptied), your finger, a fork, the back end of an algae scraper. Basically anything rigid enough to move the sand around.

\Dan

 

[Max]

by far banjo catfish are the best sand cleaners/ stirrers. they eat like catfish and they burry in the sand, 1 for every 10G's or so...

 

[Becca]

Newbie to sand - what's the purpose to stirring it?

 

[clutterydrawer]

to stop anaerobic bacteria developing in sections of sand where no oxygen reaches. I forget why anaerobic bacteria are bad but they definitely are.

 

[FishDan]

to stop anaerobic bacteria developing in sections of sand where no oxygen reaches. I forget why anaerobic bacteria are bad but they definitely are.

This is bad because the pockets, if they grow large/long enough and do somehow get released, they can be extremely toxic to your fish (so toxic that the potential exists for the gas to knock you out as well! Though this is not likely to happen.) This can also happen with gravel, but it happens with sand faster as sand compacts much more readily than gravel does. It also depends on the sand and the size of the grain. I have much more compacting with my playsand than I do with my Tahitian Moon sand, so the playsand gets stirred more often and has trumpet snails to do some stirring for me. The Tahitian Moon tank just gets some stirring every now and then.

\Dan

 

[Becca]

to stop anaerobic bacteria developing in sections of sand where no oxygen reaches. I forget why anaerobic bacteria are bad but they definitely are.

This is bad because the pockets, if they grow large/long enough and do somehow get released, they can be extremely toxic to your fish (so toxic that the potential exists for the gas to knock you out as well! Though this is not likely to happen.) This can also happen with gravel, but it happens with sand faster as sand compacts much more readily than gravel does. It also depends on the sand and the size of the grain. I have much more compacting with my playsand than I do with my Tahitian Moon sand, so the playsand gets stirred more often and has trumpet snails to do some stirring for me. The Tahitian Moon tank just gets some stirring every now and then.

\Dan

Dan, I've got that Tahitian moon sand as well - can you tell me how often you stir yours?