Shall I Sand My Big Tank?

[Sharpy14]

Hey,
Today i have Used playsand as a substrate for my 65 litre tank as i want to plant it. But am wondering wether to Sand my Big rio 180 or give it Black roman Gravel... I want to plant both of them.
Heres my 65 litre sand tank today,

What you think..

 

[Ashers]

Looks good love the bubble lines on the glass.

 

[jmkgreen]

I have argos play sand in my 4x2ft. Absolute #28### to clean. I'm thinking of moving to gravel which I had in a Juwel 70L and was much much easier to manage.

Sand looks fantastic but takes hours per week to keep it that way

 

[Sharpy14]

Can you gravel vac sand, if not how do you clean it?
Chris

 

[Aqua Tom]

I have a juwel rio 180 which has sand as a substrate.

Can you gravel vac sand, if not how do you clean it?
Chris

easy. Just syphon the poo from the surface rather than dig into it like you would with garvel.

 

[markandhisfish]

yep and i have to say that sand is much much easier to clean . just hover the syphon just above the surface of the sand , poo gets sucked up leaving the sand behind. also if you get the flow in your tank just right all the crap collects at 1 end . this is a godsend as i run a 120g tank with 2 tiger oscars . ive got 1 external each end of the tank , the 1 on the left is on the end blowing along the tank , the 1 on the right is fixed on the rear of the tank blowing back to front , this give nice circulation in the tank with a nice gentle current at the bottom. when i do my waterchange it takes me about 5 mins to clean the sand , as 90% of it stays clean and i just need to concentrate on an area about 10" square at the left hand side. the rest just gets a periodic stir .