Sand in aquarium?

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A

Andrew1002

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Feb 29, 2012
3,352
5
53
New jersey
I have a 55 gallon I would like to convert to a sand tank. So right now I have two jack dempseys in it and an Oscar. All babies. I also have three turtles in there. Two male red eared sliders and one female pastel red eared slider. So I went to home depot and purchased 150 pounds of play sand and I am going to use around 88 pounds for the tank with a 3.5 inch surface of sand. I need to know how to put in sand best after already preparing the sand (cleaning) I have seen many techniques. Any ideas or techniques please share :). I would also like to know what kind of plants I can keep with these three types of animals? I got extra fine play sand and already know how to prepare it so I don't need to know that. I would also like to know how to get the gravel out because I hate it! I need a way to get it our best and no animals will be in the tank while any of this is happening. Any leads or Ideas please share. Thanks


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Well first grab the receipt and the sand, then take it back for a refund. Then find the nearest pool store and get pool filter sand. Home depot says they sell it but mine had no clue so I got it cheap at a pool store. Easier to clean and looks way better and has no headaches like the play sand will cause

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The problems I'm talking ab out are no matter what when the sand gets moved around it clouds up and it will get into your filter. I used play sand once and then got pool sand. I will never go back

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a word of caution to all you sand users: sand has very high concentration of silica, also phosphates (found in all tap waters) when these things mix, it creates prime conditions for some nasty algae. so the use of a phos guard or bio chem is a must. the only sand that i would ever truly trust and use is...... .... wait for it....... yes pool filter sand. most reliable and economic.
 
Never had a algea problem since moving to sand. I use my lights less which helps

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when doing maintnance i have no issues with the sand clouding my water...i also turn filters off during cleaning so the sand i do stir up doesnt get in them.......never had an algae problem while using sand and i use it in all 5 of my tanks and have been for a long time
 
I have play sand and wish i wouldnt have. The fish move it around too much and i cant keep my rock caves up. They turn into piles! I dont have any algea problems and i keep a sponge on my filter intake ( which is a good idea anyway!) But ya i wouldnt recomend play sand. Or your mixture of fish! They dempseys will be ok. But if they decide they dont like your oscar, he wont make it. Aside from yoir oscar is going to need a bigger tank when he gets big.

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If im reading your post right OP, if no animals are going to be in the tank, then it is pretty self explanatory to get the sand in the tank.

If there are going to be some fish, this is how I switched my 90 tiger barb tank over to sand.
- removed 1/3 of the existing gravel with a large spoon and a bowl.
- let thenastyness settle out of the water for a day
- next took a large bowl with my well cleaned sand and slowly let water fill the bowl so the sand did not overflow the sides. Lower the bowl down slowly to the cleared out section of bottom and slowly poured out the sand. I used Tahitian moon sand which is pretty heavy and settles nicely.
- I waited a couple days to continue because I did not want to take out all of that good BB in the gravel at one time.
- repeat until the sand replaces the current substrate.

As far as plants, no clue here. Hope this helps.
 
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