Sand

[loveforfhishies]

im using ultra reef marine sand and no matter how i put it in my tank its a mess.. it creats air pockets in the sand and looks like crab. and then it will float around and get into my filter casuing it to jam.. is there any other kinda sand i can use.. this is not workin for me?

 

[Dave1]

u should have put plastic on it before u put water in the tank, the pressure from the water will compress the sand and you wont even need to rinse it off that much, and it would keep everything down nice and neat, u can smooth out the sand or make patterns in it rather easily also.

 

[loveforfhishies]

so use the same sand but put it in first.. then just plastic sheet overtop and then water and then pull out the plastic and it will stay?

 

[Torrean]

did you rinse the sand, if so then how well did you rinse it. this is the first I'm hearing of the plastic thing but it sounds interesting.

I used caribsea aragonite sand. I had no trouble with it. Maybe you could try that stuff

 

[Dave1]

so use the same sand but put it in first.. then just plastic sheet overtop and then water and then pull out the plastic and it will stay?

yup, i used clear vinyl, its thicker than say saran-wrap and it worked prefectly.

 

[MHunt]

I used what i think was play sand in my cory fry tank. Just rinsed it well, put it in the tank with the water, then let it settle before starting the filter. That said i do only have a sponge in there, but just be patient, wait for any free floating sand to settle before starting the filter. That said the fish will probably disturb it anyway so any fancy shapes you design in the sand will be disrupted by the fish. I tend to just put the substrate roughly how i want it, then the fish will do whatever they want with it anyway.