Wild sand untreated can introduce parasites and other diseases. Either boil the sand or throw it in the over and wash real good before throwing into the aquarium.
Sand vs. Gravel
- Thread starter dre205
- Start date
Wait someone said that were scared that their fish would eat the sand....... My fish dig and sift in the sand they know to spit it out and so what if they do eat some. My daughter has eatten sand before just a little bit but still she is fine. My dogs have eatten sand before when its ok a stick or ball not a little but still they injest some and they just poop it out.
So to say your are scared sand will hurt your fish is a little silly. Most of our fish come from sandy bottom rivers and lakes.
So to say your are scared sand will hurt your fish is a little silly. Most of our fish come from sandy bottom rivers and lakes.
I just switched my substrate from a tan color gravel to a darker gray sand and it looks 100x better, it now has a completely natural look and helped my cichlids stand out.
If I was you, I would go with a lighter color sand so your fish will stand out more, since you have darker fish...
If I was you, I would go with a lighter color sand so your fish will stand out more, since you have darker fish...
I used play sand, put it all in my tank and did four 100% water changes, and it was clear within 12 hours, it only costed 3.75 per 50 pound bag of sand, i used two in my 55 gallon and it is plenty.
I started with gravel and an undergravel filter, after a bunch of headaches with the nitrates in my tank I switch to the tahitian moon sand, I haven't had high nitrates since, and the tank is incredibly cleaner as well. I did however, lose one impeller due to the sand getting into the intake. I cut my losses and took precautions to not let it happen again. Since then I have 4 tanks and 3 of them have sand.(I am just too lazy to switch the last one,lol)
SAND = Pain in the ass. I ruined 2 aquaclear filters even with the intake up high. I actually like the look of gravel better and the cichlids enjoy moving it around. Also everytime one of my plecos would move around sand floating all over the place. For me ----Gravel Forever.
iv got both. I am like rock more and more every day. I like the look of sand but it gets everywhere and makes things just look dirtier. Im sure it all depends on the brand of sand.
Cblake007;3958688; said:
That sounds really neat looking!! I'll have to try that sometime, I'm not really one to try unnatural gravel colors but this sounds unique...got any pix of the setup?
