Thinking sand

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TCZeli

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jun 27, 2007
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In all my years of fish keeping I have never used sand, so I will sound like a rook here, but here goes......

Seting up a new tank (180) and I was thinking about using sand for the 1st time. Just was curious about any negatives of using sand that I would not know exist because I have never used it.

Any chance of gasses buliding up under the sand (since I wont be vacuuming it)? I will have a couple cat fish and most likely a poly or 2 so it prob wont be somthing I will have to worry about, but I figured I'd ask.

Also how much of a chance of kicked up sand breaking my canisters is there? Figure I'd keep the intake about half way down.

Thanks for the help!:D
 
Gasses can build up, but instead of vacuming, just stir it up a little and let the filters clean it.

Canisters are much better for sand because the water travels all the way through the filter before it hits the impeller. I like mine.
 
I have had 40lbs of sand in a 55 gallon tank for over a year without any consequences. The sand is between 4-0 inches thick in different places. I have never had any gasses, but my RTC mixes the sand in some places well. I mix the sand up every 6 months and change the filter the following day.

My intake is 4 inches from the sand and it does get into my HOB Emperor 400, but not much. And red tailed cats are very active.
 
i got a new 4ft 55g tank at the weekend an last night i put about 1 - 2 inch of play / Silica sand in there it was half the bag so about 15kg worth, it looks 100x better with sand in it
 
I have pool filter sand in my 125. Gasses do build up, but syphoning during cleaning will break it up. Keeping your intake away from the bottom will prevent any sand entering your filter.
 
i was wandering the same thing iam setting up 2 125's soon and i thought about putting sand in one but still dont know if i want to or not but this helps
 
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