Help with sand

[RiverMonsterFisher]

Hey I am getting a new 65 gallon. I want to put sand in it. Do need to wash the sand? Will it hurt my filter? What about the fish? Will the sand hurt the fish if they eat it? If there is food on the bottom and the fish eat the sand will it mess up their stomaches? It will be cichlids, catfish and plecos.

Thanks,

 

[Hot Slime]

Yup you need to wash the sand before you use it. You wil be surprised how dirty it can be, if your putting the sand in a already setup tank that has water/ gist and all j would wash the sand first then slowly put scoops of sand into the tank. It shouldn't harm your fish at all, fish that eat sand tend to spit it out so don't worry if you got food on the floor. As for sand damaging your filter it can wreak havoc to your motor if it gets into your filter. One way to solve this is to keep the intake tubes for your filter a few inches above the sand or you could put a prefilter on the intake tube.

 

[RiverMonsterFisher]

Yup you need to wash the sand before you use it. You wil be surprised how dirty it can be, if your putting the sand in a already setup tank that has water/ gist and all j would wash the sand first then slowly put scoops of sand into the tank. It shouldn't harm your fish at all, fish that eat sand tend to spit it out so don't worry if you got food on the floor. As for sand damaging your filter it can wreak havoc to your motor if it gets into your filter. One way to solve this is to keep the intake tubes for your filter a few inches above the sand or you could put a prefilter on the intake tube.

Thanks man! Also, where should I get the sand and what kind? Like walmart or lowes?