Salt water substrate in African cichlid aquarium

[Jakec96]

I recently bought a used 55 gallon from someone that I want to use as a grow out tank for mbuna African cichlids. The tank was previously a salt water aquarium. I was wondering if I could use the sand that it came with in an African cichlid setup or do i have to buy a new substrate. I'm not sure which brand the sand is or what kind of sand it is but it's a very fine and heavy sand if that helps.

 

[tomojsg]

depends on what kind of substrate since you wouldn't want live sand and what not
or something that will raise your salinity too high. for african cichlids i recommend
using crushed corals or just regular aquarium sand and if money is a issue you can
use reg pool filter sand or play sand which is only $5-6/50lb bag at home depot or
your LHS. if you want to really check and make sure setup the tank and check your
salinity. good luck.

 

[Imsobored152]

you can rinse out the old sand and reuse it no problem. if the tank is empty, whatever was in the sand is dead now, so at this point it would just be regular sand with dead bacteria in it. a good rinse is all you need. Or, buy new sand, the option is yours

 

[markstrimaran]

The biggest hassle will be how much gunk will build up. You will want to keep it fairly thin. As fine sand will go septic and turn black. Salt water uses " live sand" it has worms, that help oxygenate. That allows for a much deeper sand bed, 2"-4". Vs 1" for freshwater. I use 1/4" to 1/2" in my mbuna tank.

 

[duanes]

I have used aragonite (crushed coral sea sand) for many years. Ii is perfect in helping to buffer alkalinity, and pH for rift lake and Central American cichlids.
The problem you may face, is if the sand was "live", it would have been full of living animals, and if the sand has sat dry for an extended period,now dead, so you will need to clean them out thoroughly to keep the carcasses from rotting.
If it was not "live sand", no problem, although a good rinsing would be needed.
I always use Malay live bearing snails in my fresh water deeper sand beds. Much as in salt water "live" sand beds, these snails live within the sand, constantly working it, processing detritus, keeping it from going anaerobic, and cementing up.
.