Somewhere Between Sand & Gravel

[abe]

I have a plan... I'm thinking of upgrading from a 20g to a 30g, and then giving my endlers a nice 20g home

I'm sick of my red/white chunky gravel. So I'm wondering, is there a substrate somewhere between sand & gravel? Like smaller than normal gravel, yet larger than sand particles? My lfs's just seem to have "regular" gravel, so I'm not sure if this exists.

I would like to try sand, but I'm so afraid to switch I got a bag once to put in my betta tanks, it claimed no rinsing was required but I did anyway. No matter how many times I rinsed, there was a white film on the top of the water.

If I decided upon sand, what would be the easiest to add (w/ the least amount of cleaning)? Prices? How much would I need for a 30g?

 

[corykitty516]

My lfs has a fine gravel in their tanks but they dont sell it

I used playsand in my 55 gallon and recently in my 10 gal. The 55 gal took the full 50 lb. bag. I bought it at Home Depot for less than $5. I dumped the whole thing into a large bucket and ran the hose to the bottom of the bucket. I spent less than an hour spilling off the fine particles and foamy film. The hose bubbles the crud to the top.

There is a chart on the side of the playsand bag that tells you how many bags = how much area x how much depth.

It took very little time to settle and I've had no ill side effects. Good luck! I found the change was worth it.

 

[The-Wolf]

the definintion of gravel is
unconsolidated sediments composed of rock fragments that have a size which is greater than 2 millimeters but less than 15mm.

anything smaller is considered sand and anything larger are considered
stones.

try lookin in builders merchants/ landscape gardeners etc for 2 or 3 mm gravel

 

[StarOrbs]

My lfs has a fine gravel in their tanks but they dont sell it

I used playsand in my 55 gallon and recently in my 10 gal. The 55 gal took the full 50 lb. bag. I bought it at Home Depot for less than $5. I dumped the whole thing into a large bucket and ran the hose to the bottom of the bucket. I spent less than an hour spilling off the fine particles and foamy film. The hose bubbles the crud to the top.

There is a chart on the side of the playsand bag that tells you how many bags = how much area x how much depth.

It took very little time to settle and I've had no ill side effects. Good luck! I found the change was worth it.

Thats the same thing I did and it worked fine for the price too. It was still a bit cloudy but after a couple water changes and a change in filter fiber it was clear.

 

[gadazobe]

I use the fine gravel (just a titch larger than sand) in both my tanks. My lfs sells it under the name of "plant growing gravel" (not very technical, but true) It's very good, looks like coarse sand but doesn't need the up keep of sand. Only problem is it's expensive .

 

[abe]

I'll look for this plant growing gravel the next time I visit my lfs

I just realized there are a million other sand topics, so I'm sorry for starting another one.

I think pool filter sand may be my best bet, since it's pretty clean to begin with. My problem is, I can't find it anywhere. Ive been searching online & the best I can find is some zeo stuff, which claims to be better than sand. But it isnt sand then?? I dunno.

Does anyone have a link to this stuff? I did find play sand at lowes, $3 a bag Yay new sanded fishie tank for my bday!

 

[gwlee7]

I think pool filter sand may be my best bet, since it's pretty clean to begin with. My problem is, I can't find it anywhere. Ive been searching online & the best I can find is some zeo stuff, which claims to be better than sand. But it isnt sand then?? I dunno.

I got "Lighthouse" pool filter sand from Home Depot. It is under $6.00 for a 50 lb. bag and does not cloud at all. I just put a small plastic plate on top of the sand and a small plastic bowl on the the plate and then filled the bowl up with water letting it overflow onto the plate and the sand did not stir. Once the plate begins to float you can run the water straight onto the plate and remove the bowl. This was very easy and did not cloud the tanks at all. B)