Sand as substrate for CA cichlids?

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David R

David R

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Apr 26, 2005
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Been a while since I posted, I'm in the process of switching my 370g over from SA to CA and had a vague recollection of reading somewhere that finer substrates (like the sand thats in there now) are bad for CA cichlids as they unintentionally ingest it when digging.
Any truth in that?

My plan is to stock the 370g with red devils, jag, texas, festae and a few cons, (along with the aro) and moving the uaru and geos to the 220g then selling off the geos so I can have a crack at breeding the uaru.
 
I have similar stock in my 300 and I use pool filter sand. My cichlids love it. It's a larger particle size so it's a bit too big to really eat but big enough that my Midas and Freddy can decorate to their liking. My plecos love it too. Super cheap and very clean.
 
Leave the sand you don't have to change it they love digging in the stuff.
 
Sand is a natural substrate found in all lakes and streams. No matter the size and all CA cichlids are exposed to it in the wild. Any size sand is fine for any cichlid. Also kept geos for years in gravel with non of the mouth promblems some people speak of.
 
one thing to be wary of with sand is its ability to get into your filters,but if your using it already your probably aware of that. the PFS sand is bigger grain size less likely it ends up in filters
 
I'm not sure what filters you are running but if you have any hang on filters you might want to install prefilters on your intakes to keep te sand out of your impellers.
A friend of mine kept going thru impellers like crazy untill he put filter foam over his intakes. ( his africans liked to "spit" the sand into the filter intakes believe it or not!)
 
virgil2090 said:
one thing to be wary of with sand is its ability to get into your filters,but if your using it already your probably aware of that. the PFS sand is bigger grain size less likely it ends up in filters
Click to expand...
I'd like to add that if you use something like PFS it is very dense so even with your fish thrashing about in it IME the sand settles extremely quickly, also if you want it deep, like 3+ inches I'd recommend adding either some burrowing loaches or some trumpet snails, they with aerate the sand so the gas that builds up doesnt kill your fish one day when they hit a pocket on accident =p
 
Thanks all. The filters aren't an issue, running a sump and FX5 and there is currently 9 big altifrons in there messing it up and I've never had a problem with it being sucked up.

Its quite deep at the moment, and I will certainly thin it down a bit if I leave it in there with the new stock, and I stir it weekly when doing water changes to avoid any pockets building up too long.
 
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