Sand In Your Tropical Fish Aquarium

[mescalito]

Hi there, I'm new to the community. I've found a lot of valuable information in such a short time already. So glad I found you.

I'm about to start my first freshwater aquarium and am looking into different sands.

Two questions, how many lbs. of sand will I require to fill a tank 72" width and 18" depth? I'm thinking of going an inch to and inch and a half. I'm not sure at this point if I'm going to want live plants.

Also, since I have such a good amount of length to work with, I have been thinking about having some black tahitian sand at one end of the tank and white sand for about 80% of the rest of the surface. Can you mix sands? or will they eventually mixed together?

 

[Ian H]

Can you mix sands? or will they eventually mixed together?

I'm no expert (I found this site though google looking for advise on sand ) but i would guess the sand would mix fairly quickly, much more than gravel and sand.

I currently had white gravel in my tank (BIGGGG mistake, ANY bit of food/poo/algae shows up instantly) and i'm changing to sand. I'm cleaning the sand with a washing up bowl and a bucket, putting about an inch of sand in the washing up bowl then rinsing it out until its clear then putting it in the bucket. When the bucket gets full i plan on emptying it back into the bowl (maybe around 2 inches?) and doing it again. I'll do this until i'm happy with it being clean.

Am i right in thinking that khuli (sp?) loaches will dig around in this and stop the problem of gasses building up?

amazing site by the way guys, LOADS of info and a brilliant write up on the whole sand debate (even if it is years old!)

 

[new2fishes]

Well I converted to play-sand to my aquarium yesterday and apparently did not wash it well enough. So now the tank is pretty cloudy. I can see the fish and the other stuff but it is pretty foggy. Should I just wait for it to settle eventually or remove the sand and wash it and do a big water change?

edited to add: I changed over on tuesday evening, thursday morning the water looked great. Its so fun to watch the cories enjoying the sand, they remind me of the dog-broom animal from Alice in Wonderland.

Oh as for specifics I have a 10 gallon tank with 4 cories (I was down to one, I think partially because of the gravel) 3 mollies, 1 platy and 1 black skirt tetra. Well maybe I should clarify, it's my 8 yr old DD tank, thus the randomness of the fish. There are some pretty new live plants in there, I think 4 or 5 moneywort. How many plants before its "well planted" for the aeration of the substrate?

There is also a 2 1/2 gallon with a male betta and a new red claw crab which is cloudy as well, although I may have too much sand in there (about 1 - 1 1/2 inch). I guess if I am going to remove some of the sand, I might as well remove it all and do a better rinsing job?

in a fit of inspiration, I used the siphon hose to get the extra sand out. The water is cloudy, but I also did some rearranging.

As for more fish in that tank, the betta is too mean, he killed a corycat. We figure the crab can fight back.

Thanks for any help,
Christi

 

[Catfish enthusiast]

(You are quite correct in saying that sharp sand is unsuitable
but every bag of sharp sand I've ever seen is labled as such and
every bag of silver sand is either labled 'silver sand' or 'play sand)

There is a differance between silver sand and play sand though, silver sand is pre-sterilised.

 

[5teady_2012]

(You are quite correct in saying that sharp sand is unsuitable
but every bag of sharp sand I've ever seen is labled as such and
every bag of silver sand is either labled 'silver sand' or 'play sand)

There is a differance between silver sand and play sand though, silver sand is pre-sterilised.

This thread is 3 years old

 

[bluemermaid]

thank you for this btw it helped me decide to go for it and my fish love it they are quite playfull ing the sand even the shy ones.

clear and well written TY

 

[wendywc]

How can you tell if the sand is sharp sand? I just picked up a big bag of pool filter sand. It is a larger grain size than the play sand... which I am replacing because I did not like the color or the grit of it.

So how do I tell if it is sharp? I'm in the US and not the UK --- like most others on here. So I'm not quite certain that all things are equal with the labels/terms being used for our products versus yours.

 

[The-Wolf]

pool filter sand is, IMHO, the best to use so you have chosen well.

sharp sand, at least that sold here in the uk is sand that contains small pieces of shells,
this helps it to bond to cement when creating a mortar or other type of building material.

 

[madpiano]

I have used play sand in several tanks - my favourite is Mothercare. Bit more expensive than B&Q but very nice bright white.

I have never washed it before filling the tank. I put the sand in, then fill up the tank to about 10 cm above the sand, syphon it out and do that 3 times. That usually does the trick. The tank does go cloudy for a day after, but most of that is a bacterial bloom. Depends on if the sand is sterilized or not. My last 2 tanks had a bacterial bloom, this time I didn't get one and I am also not seeing much cycling going on. So I am assuming the sand was sterilized.

Bacterial bloom looks like a milky white cloud. The murkyness from the sand is more muddy, but should settle in a day.

 

[wendywc]

Thanks for the info, Wolf. It's definately not sharp then. And I do like the color alot more than play sand under the light too. So I'm getting there with getting the 55 up and running.

 

[darrel69]

Done mean to hijack.. but does anyone know where i can get some brown, fine or extra fine, River Sand from ?? Cant seem to find it on the net.. Thanks.

 

[wendywc]

The play sand I have is brown and fine. Have you compared what you are looking for with play sand?

 

[darrel69]

Yea, i wanted it slightly speckled though.

 

[The-Wolf]

your best bet is to try these guys
http/www.onlinesand.co.uk/

 

[RazorWar]

I also have a suggestion for cleaning your sand. My method is used if you want to do frequent cleanings of your sand's surface without adding newly AquaSafed Tap Water weekly and messing up the chemistry of your tank. Start a syphon with your gravel vac and begin doing the swirling motions with the tip an inch or so away. So far my method is the same as most other peoples but here's where it differs.

Take a pair of women's panty hoes and tie a not at the top of each leg and cut just below the knot. This leaves you with only the section that covers the pelvic area sealed off at the bottom two knots. Take this section and stretch it over the opening of the bucket you sucked the water and debris into and pour the water slowly back into the tank. To avoid stirring up the sand pour the water over a large decoration or rock to disperse the water before it hits the sand. All of the debris will be stuck in the nylon and your water along with all of the beneficial bacteria and electrolytes will be back in the tank. I like to keep the same water in the tank as long as it stays clear and that's why I use this method.