Sand as a Substrate

[Jon M]

Hey guys. I plan on using sand in my 125g when I have it up in the next few weeks and had a few questions.

I've read a lot about sand being more difficult to clean and maintain. Can anyone that uses sand that has used gravel shed some light on this subject?

Also when setting up the new tank is it going to be cloudy for a while after I put the sand in? If so how long will it take to clear up?

 

[CLDarnell]

Hi Jon!

I have gravel in all my smaller tanks and sand in my larger tanks. Actually, I feel its easier to keep the sand clean that it is the gravel. With sand, the junk simply lays on top. Using your Python or gravel vac, just swirl the water above the sand and the junk will float up into your vac. With gravel, the particles get down into the crevices and cavities. The benefit with gravel is you can put the nose of your vac into it to suck up the bad stuff.

Most people turn their filters off during a vac with sand. Small sand particles in your impellers aren't a good thing! But, I don't get that aggressive and have very, very little sand floating around.

Some of the bigger junk doesn't get picked up with the vac and I have made posts on here on how to create more siphon with a Python. More suction equals more sand being sucked up of course...but for now, I really don't have any issues with sand...and prefer it over gravel for aethetics!

Good luck to you!

 

[Jon M]

Sounds like most people agree to sand over gravel. Doesn't such a tool exist that's a "substrate vacuum" that's not for water changes and just for sucking the surface of substrate daily?

 

[Dan F]

I don't ever vacuum my sand. I have found that if I have enough circulation and mechanical filtration the detritus stays in the water column and gets filtered out. It helps that I have Eartheaters that keep the top layer of sand turning over.

 

[Matt724]

i only use sand now. I used to have gravel, but all it did was collect gunk inbetween it and you could see it infront of the glass, and it was generally annoying. Sure, you'll probably get more water flow through it, but with sand, as long as for the first couple of months you rake through it with your hands to get all the air bubbles out (which, is really easy, esp if you have fish that likes to mess around in the sand) then you're all good. and cleaning it is really simple, just use a typical gravel vac and hover over it, lifting maybe the top few cm of sand and you're good to go. I usually mix up the sand with the gravel vac during water changes just to make sure there aren't any aerobic pockets. many people also use sand and gravel mixture, which tends to look really cool. Some good examples are Lee's central american tanks.

 

[Matt724]

Sounds like most people agree to sand over gravel. Doesn't such a tool exist that's a "substrate vacuum" that's not for water changes and just for sucking the surface of substrate daily?

yes there is, it's pretty much a tube with an airline about 2/3 of the way in, which blows bubbles to create a vacum in the tube and any gunk that it collects shoots off into a bag. i'll try to find a link. never used it before, never had to, water changes are better.

 

[Matt724]

http://reviews.petco.com/3554/100026/eheim-eheim-quick-vac-pro-reviews/reviews.htm

there are simpler ones, but this is pretty much the top of the line. you could also just use a siphon, tie a bit pantyhose material at the bottom to form a bag, siphon the water out, into a bucket, then pull off the bag that's collected all the gunk and toss it, then just put the water back in. I do that when I don't feel like conditioning new water, but water changes are always better

 

[Jon M]

Well I do water changes pretty frequently and I just gota python yesterday so I'm sure i'll be hitting the water at least 2x a week so if I don't need it then I'll skim the sand with the python.

I assuming I can get pool filter sand at any pool supplies store correct?

 

[sonskietot16]

hello everyone, those play sand you can buy on home depot are safe?

 

[buddha1200]

play sand is a little fine and blows around easily,pool filter sand is heavier and doesnt blow around much,both are safe(both need to be rinsed very well)