gravel bottom currently, want sand. Filteration questions??

[SSmokinn SS]

right now I currently have a 125 gallon tank with a 16" silver arowana, 13" florida gar, albino oscar, catfish and a 12" tire track eel with some various Ciclids.

as far as filteration, at the moment I have a under gravel filter with 3 aquaclear 70 powerheads on reverse flow (pushing the water down rather then pulling out) with a Marineland Emperor 400 bio wheel filters on each end.

Last night I noticed that the under gravel setup is doing nothing but making it filthy under the plastic bottom sheet. I would like to remove the bottom sheets and all 3 power heads. Would my tank be ok with the two emperor 400 filters? I mean the water is Chrystal clear as it sits now.

also, I have always liked the cleanness look of sand. Is it a pain in the butt? Worth it? I have a good variety of live plants such as amazon swords and Italian Val's as well. Thanks guys!

Andrew

video of my current tank setup to give you a better idea what it looks like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxfz-TW64mA

only difference from then until now is all the fake plants have been replaced with real.

 

[Pharaoh]

I love having sand. I don't think I'll ever go back to gravel.

 

[SSmokinn SS]

I love having sand. I don't think I'll ever go back to gravel.

how do you go about cleaning it??? The only thing im worried about is my filters sucking up sand when the arowana or oscar go at it and stir everything up!

 

[SSmokinn SS]

no one?? Really??

 

[goldies88]

Have your filter intake up at least 6" above sand. You be ok

 

[Capsaicin]

You'd be surprised how quickly sand settles back down. I have black t-grade 3M colorquartz and i use a python gravel vac on it and I have never sucked up any sand. I stick the vac right into the sand like gravel...

go sand!

 

[SSmokinn SS]

Have your filter intake up at least 6" above sand. You be ok

the filter is about half way up the tank right now...tank is 21" deep.

 

[fishbum]

I would not use it with HOB filters unless you put a sponge on the intake. I have had sand ruin the impeller on a Emperor 400,with the intake up off the bottom. JME.

 

[Firebird]

I had sand in my last tank and managed to scratch the hell out of the glass. Seemed like no matter how careful I was a grain of sand would end up in the mag float, went back to gravel this time. Love the look of sand though.

 

[benray4fun]

White sand with your set up would look spectacular. I had a problem with my intakes with the sand on both my E400's when they were too low, but you should be all set. My set up was cloudy for a about 6-8 weeks initially and eventually the sand bacterialized and settled down.
I keep the turn over rate a click down and run it with 100 micron pads between the blue filter pads and the media trays..."CRISPY" Your's will be the same...