thinking of switching to sand,
- Thread starter overstocked
- Start date
when i had my 55 with sand i used 45lbs of play sand, it was pretty good looking, but my oscar took the sand as a personal challange, so he dug and dug, everyday. one day my filter was making a jarring sound(canister), yup full of sand. so i ditched it. but it did look good.
That's my main reason for not going with the play/sandpit sand. It's so fine that if you've got digging fish it will get stirred up quite regularly and end up clogging your filter.
Shouldn't have any problems with sand around the 1mm grain size.
Shouldn't have any problems with sand around the 1mm grain size.
Leslie's Pool Supply has the best sand. It's a bit expensive at $12.99 a bag but well worth the extra money. It's a larger grain sand that falls quickly so not to clog up your filters and is practically clean right out the bag. I rinse it a couple of times and it's ready...no dust cloud and no rinsing for ever and ever like cheaper play sand.
balton777;1469118; said:
I use a similar product, it's pool filter sand. Can't go wrong for AU$14 for 20kg. Quick rinse in a bucket and it's good to go.
overstocked;1468954; said:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/calculator.php
check at the bottom of the page "Sand Bed Depth"
I use play sand, I like the natural look, especially with my fake plants.....
It is a pain to rinse to start, I recommend doing it outside, it has a lot of very fine dust in it but the end product is nice looking.
I have my filter intakes high and wrap them with poly-fil, the stuff they use in quilts, it acts as a pre filter and keeps my HOB impellers from being destroyed.
I might have to try the pool filter sand, have to see what it looks like.
when i had sand in my 55 i used a 50lb bag of pool filter sand. got it at meijer for $8. i put some in a 5gallon bucket rinsed it in my tube till the water ran clean and continued this process until it was all in the tank. and pool filter sand is much cleaner than play sand so cleaning only takes a few minutes for each bucket full. and i was able to turn my filters on right after putting the sand in the tank. the 50lb bag gave me a nice depth of about if i remember correctly 1" depth. cleaning has been covered so i wont get into that. i think you will really like the look of sand
