Freshwater sand as substrate?

[jonoz]

Hey all, just thinking about my setup for when I get my 8x2x2 or 8x3x2 and was considering going a sandy substrate.

I have read abit and it seems you need to get inert sand so that it does not affect the water chemistry aswell as having to rake the sand weekly to prevent buildup of anaerobic bacteria?

Can anyone comment?

Looking to house arowana, catfish, adonis, dats etc.

 

[genEus]

"Search" is your friend But, in a nutshell...

Use pool filter sand - it's bigger than play sand and won't destroy your filter. Get it at a pool store, should run between $5-$10 for 50lb.

You need sand to turn over to prevent anaerobic bacteria. Either get some malaysian trumpet snails to do that job for you or rake it yourself periodically.

 

[benzjamin13]

Pool Filter Sand will be your best option cost-wise but it requires A LOT of cleaning.

 

[ctenopoma]

I have pool filter sand it looks natural and is cheap. food / fish poo somtimes gets the grains stuck to it and it makes it hard to siphon up and it's extremely annoying. If you do a very thin sand bed (less than an inch) you won't have to turn the sand over. I am switching to natural gravel because the white sand made all my fish turn white to try to blend in and they look horrible.

 

[genEus]

Pool Filter Sand will be your best option cost-wise but it requires A LOT of cleaning.

The one I got hardly needed any washing. I spent about an hour washing all 50 lbs with a garden hose and I think that was overkill. When I put it in my tank and poured water in it was not cloudy at all even for a second

 

[cchhcc]

My PFS didn't need much cleaning either..... Guess it varies.

Like someone said, if you keep the sand layer thin you won't have to stir it at all. Also, if you keep geos they'll keep it stirred up for you!

I like to toss in a few bits of larger gravel and stone as it makes it looks less uniform and more natural.