Sand in Tanks,

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DeepSeaFishin

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I read the pinned article about sand in tanks, My question is,

Soon I will be purchasing a 39gal tank on a stand (very nice :fun:) and I was going to place some sand in the tank (freshwater tank by the way). If i decide to put sand in the tank, would this be unsafe due to the freshwater in the tank? and also i was wondering if any of the sand stirred up by the fish or simply the current, clog up my HOB filter (Hang On Back Filter)?

Or maybe i was thinking of a finly ground up rock-type-substrate

What would you reccomend?

Tom
 
Sand sounds fine, just make sure u wash sand very well otherwise the water will go cloudy.. also make sure filter is 1inch above sand so that the sand doesn't get sucked up.

:D what fish are u planning to have??
 
for me the easiest way to wash sand is to get and old bedsheet, a strainer (for like, draining ground beef to get rid of the grease), and a rubberband. Cut the bedsheet to where it will sit inside the strainer with a little bit of a lip around the top, then rubberband the lip to the outside of the strainer. Dump in the sand, fill it up with water, and after a couple times, all the particles that are too little will sift through the bedsheet. I cleaned about 25lbs of sand this way in about 15 minutes.

DeepSeaFishin- I switched over to sand a while back, and I'm glad I did. A lot of fish prefer sand for some reason or another, particularly catfish and burrowers/diggers. I'd definitely say go sand. But it's all a matter of opinion. :thumbs:
 
I read the pinned topic on sand.
It looks like you can also throw the sand in the bucket and then run a hose in it and let the water spill out until the water becomes clear.

Would you get the same effect putting the water in a bucket in the bathtub and letting the water from the spout run in the bucket until it runs clear?
 
All of our eight freshwater tanks are sand, and now I wouldn't use anything else.

It's easier to clean, the fish love it and it looks great.

Many of the fish we keep not only prefer sand but actually require it such as the Violet Gobies, the Puffers, the Chacachaca and the Banjos who all like to burrow and would have a hard time on gravel.

Also our Cories have long, luxuriant barbles without stones wearing them down.

Just two things to remember, put the filter intake as high as you can and make sure the sand gets stired once in a while, either by hand or by the actions of burroing fish or malaysian trumpet snails.
 
tub or hose... the same actions / results take place...

If your starting a tank from scratch washing (to me) the sand seems less important and by the time your ready to put fish in the smaller particles (which make the water cloudy) will have been filtered out...

The bio wheel is attached to the water return on your filter. They are great for filtering... but won't effect the intake one way or the other. As others have mentioned the height of your filter intake tube is what you have to adjust. I'd suggest putting it approx half way between the top and bottom of your tank. That should keep it more than 6 inches from the sand and more than 6 inches from the top...
 
Thanks for all the help :hyper:

Well im still not sure about what im stocking it with, perhaps gouramis or instead ill get a big ol cichlid :shifty:
 

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