Is it better to run sand or gravel in the bottom of the tank for catfish. I was thinking about using sand for the bottom. I just thought it would be neat instead of using gravel. I had big cats before but just wanted your alls input.... Starting up a new tank in the next month and just wanted some ideas.
Sand
- Thread starter Florencebigfish
- Start date
I think sand is more natural for large cats. Plus if they swallow sand it will pass easier than rocks. They are really bad about swallow stuff that fits into their mouths. I use sand and large river stones that can't fit in their mouths in my ponds, and I want to redo all my tanks to have sand in my house.
necrocanis;953759; said:
Good point there, however if you have a deep sand bed and it isn't stirred frequently and well, it can develop anaerobic spots which can wreak havoc on your water conditions. Also, it can quickly destroy pumps.
So where is it you get quartz sand at. Can i use like the play sand you get from lowes or someplace.
KNH;953839; said:
Do you have any problems with the quartz sand irritating the bellies of your fish?
I use play sand with no problems, but big fish move it around alot. It needs to be rinsed really well. There tends to be bare spots where my fish likes to lay. In deeper spots of the sand they just make like a nest to lay in, more like a shallow depression though. Never tried quartz sand.
I used to use sand, but over time it accumulated in the wet dry (floating partcile get through the overflow) and slows the flow. Maybe I just wasn't careful enough to pre-soak the sand thoroughly enough, not sure. In any case, I went back to fine gravel.
BECAUSE OF THIS THREAD I WAS INRIGUED TO DO A SAND AQUARIUM I STARTED IT FRIDAY AND BY SUNDAY I WAS READY TO PUT FISH IN IT. IT IS STILL A LITTLE HAZY BUT IT IS GOING TO BE SWEET. I DID A 98 HEX TANK WITH 2 TSNs 1 LP A PACU 2 OSCARS. AND 2 MYSTERY CATS THAT I CANT GET A GOOD PIC OF FOR THIS THREAD. ALL ARE DOING WELL.