sand or gravel or both with new world cichlids
- Thread starter Experiment397
- Start date
wow that does look good, where can i get some, specific store pls. what is it called, i mean brand everyhting pls. it is not the cichlid sand. if you go to drsfostersmith.com and go to fish and search sand it comes up. they are called crystal river and the other is like moonlit beach, or something like that. some of the other ones are like torpedo beach, and kon tiki, along with rio grande, if that helps at all. i might get a bag of crystal river and a bag of the pool sand stuff. or a bag of the black sand and mix it with the pool sand. i just like the darker sands, but not the black.
every store in different areas have different brands so not sure what to tell you there but yeah i got the PFS for my tank for about $8 for a 50lb bag. you just go to lowes or home depot and ask the person for pool filter sand and they will show you where it is. just make sure to clean it well and as long as you do this then you should have barely any clouding right from the start and yeah it looks really good i havent had a moment of regret from choosing it for my tank it looks great
ok thanks i will do that asap. that will leave buying the rest of the decor and fish, along with the airpump, and building the stand. man this bigger tank stuff takes forever, how you guys manage to setup a tank over 300+ or even 1000+ gallons makes me wanna worship your love of the hobby.
Yes, both Lowes and Home Depot have pool filter sand. It's usually outdoors in their garden section in large 50lb bags. Sarah88 is right, you have to rinse it really thoroughly or it will cloud your tank or even turn the water tan. I just put about 10lb at a time in a 5g bucket and swish it around until the water runs clear. It's a pain, but for the price it's worth it.
One more thing about sand, cichlids will pick it up and spit it out all over the place, which can damage the motor in hang-on-back filters pretty badly. Canister filters tolerate sand much better. I still keep the intake of the filter at least 6 inches above the sand level to keep it from sucking up sand.
One more thing about sand, cichlids will pick it up and spit it out all over the place, which can damage the motor in hang-on-back filters pretty badly. Canister filters tolerate sand much better. I still keep the intake of the filter at least 6 inches above the sand level to keep it from sucking up sand.
yeah +1 i keep my intake a couple inches above the bottom to prevent this, it is large enough grained that the filter itself wont just suck it up like with moonsand but it could happen if the cichlids are spitting it around, though i have a canister so it not that bad, by the way here is a pic i have of my argentea that kind of shows the sand in my tank as well (all other pics i have at moment are just of the fish higher up in the tank lol)
ok thanks i will look for it. so rinse it good. put the filter intake 6+ inches above the sand, i have canisters btw, and use it instead of the expensive sands and i should be good.
I use both, and honestly the trick for me is using natural gravel that is very fine. Keeps food near the top where the fish can get it. That way you have less wasted food messing up your water. Sand speaks for it's self and I like the black sand I use for my 125g. Can't go wrong either way I think.
Experiment397;4209023; said:
Yep, sounds good! I think you'll like it. And you'll have to post pictures of the finished tank.
Oh, one other thing I didn't mention that I LOVE about sand. I feed a lot of sinking pellets which can easily fall between gravel and never be seen, then rot. That's not the case with sand-- it sits on top and always gets eaten!
i had to quite feeding my fish the sinking pellets, and lost 2 catfish because that was alll they would eat, because of them rotting in the gravel. i will have to buy more sinking pellets.
