can pleco's live in sand?

[so cal nick]

I am getting colorquartz for my tank, and they only sell it in fifty pound bags. My brother also wants to get sand now (in his other 60), but he already has fish that include cichlids and a pleco. My question is if the pleco is alright in sand, and how would i go about replacing the gravel to sand with the current amount of fish (9)?

Thanks

 

[pcfriedrich]

as far as I know, the pleco should be fine with the color quartz. its the manufactured silica that might be a problem.

I switched from gravel to sand in an established tank. Here's how I did it (or should have, I made a mistake or two).

1. remove the fish

2. remove almost all the water.

3. remove all the gravel. I left a little bit, about a quart, I figured it would help seed bacterial colonies in the sand. its also kind of cool when my cichlids dig them up and spit them out on top of larger rocks.

4. Wash the new sand. that is where I messed up. I didn't wash it, it took over 30 minutes for the dust to settle in my room and 4 hours for the dust to settle in my tank. its probably best to do this first and have it ready when your tank is, you don't want your fish in temporary holding any longer than necessary. to wash it, just fill a bucket halfway and run a hose in it while stirring it with your hand until the water running over the top is clean.

5. Add the water. do a water change if it is way too cloudy.

6. Add the fish.

7. Enjoy and keep clean.

Edit: I used pool filter sand, but the procedure should be the same.

 

[DucatiDragster]

I have both of my plecos with sand, they are doing great.

 

[Rawimpact]

colorquartz was pretty clean when i used it, there were a few particles that resembled flakes (similar to flakes in gravel that float).

The cloud lasted about an hour for my tank to clean, but then again i didn't have any fish at that time so i didn't have to remove anything.

 

[pcfriedrich]

I know colorquartz is completely spherical, its manufactured like tiny marbles, or something. its probably a lot, lot cleaner than the mined silica crystal pool filter sand I used.

 

[deeda]

My pleco is fine in the S-grade Colorquartz. As a matter of fact, the cichlids tend to spit it all over him so he is usually covered with it quite extensively.

I switched my 75G from gravel to S-grade last year. I gravel vacuumed most of it out over a 2 week period, pulled all the rocks out then used a rubber dust pan to scrape out the remaining. Added thoroughly pre-rinsed S-grade sand with no cloudiness issues.

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

It won't be an issue.

pcfriedrich used the same method as myself for changing out the substrate, but I didn't remove my fish.

 

[benzjamin13]

Sand should be fine. Changing out the gravel to sand will be a pain though. I would remove the fish just in case any debris and "gases" get too out of hand for the fish to handle.

 

[Fishermoe14]

i use nets to scoop out gravel, and siphon the left over tiny bits out with a hose..

color quartz is awesome.. the only thing is, when washing it make sure you use a bucket you dont plan to keep.. for some reason there is this oily crap that gets all over everything.. my hands were black after washing the sand..

i have the CQ in my discus tank and my piranha tank, piranhas have a common pleco and the discus has 4 bristle noses.. all are fine with sand

 

[dragonfish]

All my tanks have sand with plecos. One I switched from gravel to sand with the fish in it. Washed sand, vacuumed gravel well, removed half with a net. Replaced that side with sand, waited a couple weeks for bacteria to migrate, replaced other half. Water cloudy for a couple of hours but no loss of fish.