Sand Vs Gravel

[Twinklecaz]

Ok so I'm thinking of changing to sand. It'll be no hassle really at this stage coz obviously I have to do my full water change (don't I?) when my cycle is finished so I think if I'm gonna do it it would be wise to decide now rather than a few weeks/months down the line when I have fish.

So what I'd like you guys to tell me please is the pros and cons of having sand rather than gravel? I will be having corys (probably Pandas) and live plants. I also have 2 pieces of bog wood if that's relevant!

Thanks

 

[VaegaVic]

I've currently got 5 tanks (and counting ) and every single one has sand in it.
It's now been proven that if you have gravel, you have 40% more waste in your tank than sand. Some argue this would be better for biological filtration, but I personally think it's a cause of (or at least helps) algal growth.

Sand also looks prettier, fish like corys prefer it and there's more room for plant roots to grow.

HOWEVER.
It's a bit of a ***** to clean very fine waste off of, as sand will end up in the bucket when cleaning. It's generally more expensive unless you use play sand (argos, £5, 15kg) and isn't a very good anchor for live plants.

At the end of the day, it's up to you, but from past experience of having gravel in a 2 year old tank, I'd take sand every time.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Hi, thanks. Is there a way to get round the plant anchoring thing?

The cleaning thing is an issue for me coz I'm quite cack handed about it. But my gravel is black and I did think I may find the sand easier coz at least I'll be able to see what I'm doing better. I'm terrified of sucking Corys up with my syphon when I get them!

What do you do with your sand when it does in the bucket? Do you just put it back in? Does it make the water cloudy?

 

[benjoey]

I just put the sand back in when the bucket has dried out. It doesn't make the tank cloudy it's only the very fine particles which ill make the water cloudy, they will go after you wash the sand orafter changing the water a couple of times

 

[PDSimon]

I spoke to a guy at the green machine which specialise in aquascaping, they said because play sand is so fine along with the compression of all the water pushing down on it, it makes it difficult for roots to grow. However, easy to grow plants that you're going to use for the low tech approach don't seem to be bothered by it. I've never read 'plants don't grow in playsand' and have seen numerous tanks with sucessful growth without ferts or any form of c02 added.

It's basically which ever you prefer visually

If you're worried about plants, you could always put a substrate underneath the sand...


syphoning sand is slightly different, because you swirl it around a bit and bring the dirt up into the water into the syphon rather than proding like you do with gravel.

I just throw out sand thats been sucked into the bucket (its not very much at all...). When you've washed sand in a bucket ready to put in the tank, i washed mine quite a lot so it settled very quickly... if you accidently hit the sand when syphoning, it makes it a bit cloudy..nothing much though and soon settles from what i've done it.

You could always put a substrate on top of the sand as well and hold it in with rocks. I've seen it done on some aquariums and it looked really good. its getting expensive then though and thats more of a high tech approach

 

[Twinklecaz]

Lol it's very confusing. I think visually yeah I would prefer sand coz my tank is just so dark with the lights off. So you you're not supposed to touch the sand with the syphon ?

 

[PDSimon]

You don't touch the sand with the syphon, you just swirl around above it and creates a bit of a tornado kind of motion. touching it doesn't do much though..not with my syphon

 

[waterdrop]

Definately over-worrying again Caz! Both sand and gravel (and mixes in-between) are old and well-accepted practice. Either one carries a learning curve of sorts for any beginner but its one that anyone can handle if they are just thoughtful and observant about their experiences as they go about it. The flexibility to create aquariums with either type of substrate is what helps make variety and interest in the hobby.

Perhaps start with a simple siphon tube that has no gravel-cleaning cylinder and that you can clamp your thumb over to start and stop the flow as you move about a little above substrate level. You will need to experiment with height above substrate level vs. stirring up debris with a wave of the other fingers holding the tube. When you very first start out, simply slow way down and keep your thumb clamped over while you observe whether your tube is hitting things in your aquarium and where your corys are - if you are observant rather than rushed, you should find you have no problem.

The inevitable loss of small amounts of sand can be dealt with as mentioned. Either keep the rest of a big bag of the same sand in the shed (hey, its cheap compared to other supplies!) so you can add more if the loss seems noticable or if you some day have big tanks then to the save technique mentioned of letting it dry in your catch-bucket. By the way, I virtually -always- use a catchbucket at the other end of my siphon hose, even if the hose goes out the window into the garden. The catchbucket serves any number of purposes. It can catch a fish if one manages to shoot down the siphon hose (I've had danios do that) but most of all it provides you with plenty of old tank water for cleaning the filter if its that time in the schedule. It can also catch baby plants that get siphoned up, which happens to me pretty often I find.

Sounds great to me that you are choosing more of a sand sized substrate as I believe your corys will love it (perhaps not as much as their native mud, lol, but hey, you probably wouldn't like their much clouding your tank!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[JoshuaA]

It can catch a fish if one manages to shoot down the siphon hose (I've had danios do that

Wow, I continuously told my girlfriend not to worry it would never happen the fish can't fit down the hose. Now I feel like a big liar, however it sounds rather amusing as wrong as it is.

 

[waterdrop]

Oh yes, I considered that my zebra danio thought this was great fun and I had a wonderful laugh out of the whole thing while my son netted him and took him back to his home. He had shot 50 feet down the hall to the bathroom where the catchbucket was in the tub and I'm sure he wanted to do it again right away and get all his friends in on it. If you think about it, most of our fish are kids and teenagers a bit after we bring them home and they probably want their version of FUN in life!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[stuuk1]

I did this exact change yesterday in my 240 Rio. One thing I will say is be prepared! Luckily you have to fish to keep warm in the process!

Definitely do the change though, it is well worth it! Ive put a good 3 inches at the bottom, got slightly carried away if im honest...

I used play sand from Argos to and its good stuff, just make sure you wash it out well, and my god, it needs it! I must have missed some as my tank went a little cloudy, so may be advised to add some polishing media to your filter to get rid of it all (over night and mine is almost clear again).

I did the change as I have a yoyo loach and a polkadot loach which are bottom feeders.

I have also sucked up a couple of fish, one being yesterday! But he got stuck in the end so didnt make it down the tube, but it does happen! haha.


Good Luck! + make sure you leave yourself enough time.

The whole change for me which included catching the fish (18 fish), stripping the tank, siphoning the water, cleaning the glass, adding everything, filling back up, catching the fish again... and de-potting my plants and planting in the sand took me a whopping 5 hours!! Never expected it to last so long. What was worse is that I regretted doing it half way through but was too late to turn back!

 

[karin]

All I would add is that my Cory's are different fish in sand. They are so much more... I don't know how to say it... but natural. They dig and dig and wiggle around and I swear their barbels have grown longer. I have sand, corys, and plants and even in my very low light set up it is all going pretty well. My plants do not get dug up and the others that are not buried, I weight down with those lead straps.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Right I'm gonna do it, thanks everyone. It's only £2.99 online from Argos. You can't argue with that can you?

WD do you have live plants in yours? I was only plannning to get low tech ones anyway coz all that CO2 stuff makes me go like this -----> . Actually, I need to read up about plants. It's something I've yet to do really.

 

[fishy55]

I have got sand, but like you I started the fishless cycling with gravel and changed it over towards the end. The change was easy, I syphoned the gravel up the tube and into a bucket. I have B&Q play sand, a big bag cost about £4.00. I didn't know I needed to wash it, so just shoved it in and then then the filter seemed to sort it out for me.

Last weekend I put bronze corys, harlequins and live plants in my new tank. All seem okay.

Today I did the first water change, I used the gravel cleaner but don't think I will again. I think I will just use the tube in future. The corys and the harlequins survived okay, they just kept out the way or hid.

However, most of the plants came out and I had to put them back in again - that was a complete pain. I had bought the set of 25 from last trading post on E bay and besides one particular type they seem to be growing okay and the cuttings are growing roots. I have put flourish food into the water a couple of times and today put in a bit of flourish carbon to see if that brings them on any.

Hope you get there soon, I got bronze corys not pandas as I believe they a little bit hardier and can go into a newer tank. They are really cute little fish and seem to be all over the place and seem to enjoying playing in the bubbles when I put the air pump on.

Fishy55.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah I like the bronze ones but I think they might grow a bit big for my tank.

I'd hate that with the plants. I wonder if they'll be better when they establish their roots more?