gravel bottom currently, want sand. Filteration questions??

[m1ste2tea]

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

I def like sand better than gravel, however if you are going to make it a planted tank(lights) then I recommend that you choose nothing but black moon sand, or another black sand substrate. I currently have white sand in one tank and black in another, both planted tanks, and the white one is not very white anymore. Some grains seem to grow green algae very well and its not something that can be vacuumed out.

my original thought was to have white sand so that more light would be reflected back up and onto the plants rather than being absorbed by black.

on a further note get two buckets that will fit under the kitchen sink faucet and clean the sand well, you will loose some of the tiny grains but you wont get cloudy water at all if you do so.

 

[Egon]

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.

I did this once with my acrylic tank! I almost died. I didn't notice until a couple big passes.

The sand got into my filters too but didn't seem to cause any harm? I did notice after I tore the acrylic tank down that the under gravel jets I had sort of sandblasted divots into the acrylic over the two years I had that tank set up.

I will never use under gravel jets again but I do like the look and cost of sand.