I am leaning towards sand in my 2 new plywood tanks. So I have some questions first. I will be using power filters in each tank. I was told that I need to put a piece of foam over the strainer of the intake tube so it wont suck up and sand and mess up my power filter. So if I do this then how high should I make the tubes from the bottom of the sand. Also how often should I stir the sand up in the tank to clean it.
Thinking about sand
- Thread starter truck_317
- Start date
i think the only benefit to sand that makes it worth while is its look. besides the fact that it looks good and is beneficial to some fish, i think sand is hard to keep as clean as gravel. if you have a lot of plants and or tank decor, it can really be a pain.
as for churning the sand...just do it everytime you stick a syphon in there to clean or do wc's.
sand will mess up your filters and powerheads so i try to keep my intakes well above the sandy bottom. if you place foam over the intake youll eventualy lose a lot of power...
i hope you can have time to look into some different types of sand. i am currently stuck with sand in a few of my tanks but have found that one type is unlike the others. im unsure of the brand but if you do want to spend an extra buck, instead of playsand, look for sand that isnt so fine. tahitian moon sand is very heavy and makes syphoning a lot easier. a heavier (slightly larger granules) sand does not pack like fine sand either.
as for churning the sand...just do it everytime you stick a syphon in there to clean or do wc's.
sand will mess up your filters and powerheads so i try to keep my intakes well above the sandy bottom. if you place foam over the intake youll eventualy lose a lot of power...
i hope you can have time to look into some different types of sand. i am currently stuck with sand in a few of my tanks but have found that one type is unlike the others. im unsure of the brand but if you do want to spend an extra buck, instead of playsand, look for sand that isnt so fine. tahitian moon sand is very heavy and makes syphoning a lot easier. a heavier (slightly larger granules) sand does not pack like fine sand either.
Ficious;3924458; said:
I agree, I have both play sand and tahitian moon sand, and the heavier grain tahitian moon sand is much better. I have yet to find any of it in my sump, whereas I probably have 10lbs of play sand in my sump on my other tank at this point.
I don't think sand is necessarily harder to clean. I rarely have to vacuum my sand, whereas I always had to vacuum gravel. The sand doesn't really allow detritus to settle under it quite the same way gravel does, so if you keep a good current across the bottom of the tank (just above the sand) to help keep detritus in the water column, you can drastically reduce the amount of vacuuming you have to do.
Also, if you keep fish like stingrays, eels, some catfish, eartheaters, or most cichlids, they all do a great job of stirring up sand, so you rarely have to. Sand is also a pretty good substrate for growing plants (I had lots of plants in my play sand). One of my amazon sword plants I pulled out, had 16" leaves, and 30" roots!
