White sand

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MojoFish

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Does anyone have white sand? Looks stylish in a black backed tank and Iā€™m thinking of getting some for my new tank.

Whatā€™s the opinion... get dirty to easily? Hard to clean?
 
I have pool filter sand in my 29 gallon tank. It doesn't require much rinsing before putting into the tank. You can use a siphon to lift up any detrius on the surface...just skim across the surface with the siphon tube. It stays relatively clean looking and cories like it. And it is very inexpensive. Lots of benefits to PF sand in the aquarium. It is readily available at swimming pool supplies store.
 
Does anyone have white sand? Looks stylish in a black backed tank and Iā€™m thinking of getting some for my new tank.

Whatā€™s the opinion... get dirty to easily? Hard to clean?
Iā€™m new, so havenā€™t ever tried white sand, but yes, looking at my black sand I think it would drive me mad trying to keep it crisp white...
 
I was thinking black sand but I was thinking is black sand like a black car and shows up all the dirt? Is it hard to keep clean?

my current tank has speckled sand and to be fair itā€™s not easy to see a lot of dirt given itā€™s speckled nature
 
I usually use black sand or play sand. The play sand doesn't really show the dirt, and the black sand shows it just a little. I have one white sand tank, and do want to change it (once time and money allow, lol). I don't have any bottom dwellers in there, though, so everything just settled on to the sand. Maybe I should just move my cories in?
 
I was thinking black sand but I was thinking is black sand like a black car and shows up all the dirt? Is it hard to keep clean?

my current tank has speckled sand and to be fair itā€™s not easy to see a lot of dirt given itā€™s speckled nature
A11EDF7A-F311-4FC5-A260-232605E794E5.jpeg

Thatā€™s my black sand, cleaning day is Saturday - so itā€™s a week old today. As I said earlier, Iā€™m still quite new and still honing the sand hoovering without sucking it all out of the tank stage ??
 
The cories and BN Pleco help remove any leftover food and help a bit with algae. I use a Python water changer to vacuum the surface by hovering just over the surface of the sand.
 
I usually use black sand or play sand. The play sand doesn't really show the dirt, and the black sand shows it just a little. I have one white sand tank, and do want to change it (once time and money allow, lol). I don't have any bottom dwellers in there, though, so everything just settled on to the sand. Maybe I should just move my cories in?
Do you want to change it as itā€™s a bit of a nightmare to keep looking good?
 
White sand has one drawback...it can affect the fish. This is why I use Quikrete Play Sand, it comes in two shades, a "natural" tan colour, and a dark grey. I have the latter because that is what Home Depot here carries. The grey is a mix of black, white, grey, beige...and I have never had it "look" dirty even in my cory tank of 40 cories poking into it continually, and I never "clean" the substrate in their tank, they keep house very well!

There are ways to lessen the detrimental effect of white sand on fish, such as using a lot of hardscape and dried leaves to cover it, and reduced overhead light (this reflects off white sand) with floating plants.
 
I only have white sand in my saltwater tank, so I can't really chip in on how it performs in a freshwater tank. My only complaint with it, is that you can see any and all debris (poop, leftover food, etc.), especially algae.

I would look into some play sand or pool filter sand.

Here is the color and grain size of the play sand:
P1090103 (2).JPG


White sand has one drawback...it can affect the fish.
Is that the case with freshwater fish as well?
 

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