Yet again, another question about sand..

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Ash

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Jul 27, 2005
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So I am here to bug you guys again to ask you about sand. I am putting it in my 30gal blah blah so when I go to clean my tank.... how do I clean it, or do you clean it, or is it like kitty litter and you have to try to sccop it out O__o ??? Yah once again I am new with this lol.
 
If you use pool filter sand it is fairly coarse and looks good, and with a long python tube you can clean it like gravel. Also you dont have to rinse it very much before you put it in. I just set up a tank and didnt rinse it at all and the water was just barely cloudy for about a day.
 
yah I was told to rinse it some before putting it in, then I wasnt sure if I can clean like I do with my gravel
 
Okay, i'm assuming that you are talking about removing the fish waste? Well if you use fine sand, the fish Poop will just lay on the surface of the sand. To clean it... you do not dig into the sand like you would do with gravel, You simply just move the siphon across the surface about 1-1.5" off the surface of the sand. That way you don't suck up much of the sand, but the waste will be siphon all out.
 
Okay, I think I am sorta of getting it, but how do I know what kinda sand I have, will it say if its a fine sand? I bought this nice softish like sand, it looks really nice, but I have no idea if its fine sand??? All I looked for was if it was safe for freshwater fish.... and I got the one that looked nice and felt soft and neat and the other one was kinda icky and not so soft, does that mean its fine sand...?? Yah I am talking about removing the waste..
 
Well if it is nice softish sand then it is fine sand. Sand on the beach is considered fine. if it looks like little rocks or gravel then it's not. I'm also in the process of looking for african cichlid sand, the black and white mix.
 
If it is really fine it will almost feel like mud when you get the water in the tank (but it wont look like mud) and if your filter intake is too close it could mess the impeller(s) up. just another think to take into consideration
 
twk1 said:
Well if it is nice softish sand then it is fine sand. Sand on the beach is considered fine. if it looks like little rocks or gravel then it's not. I'm also in the process of looking for african cichlid sand, the black and white mix.

Yah I was going to go all black, then I fig. It would be a little to black so I got the light colored sand, looking for some sort of a black rock, a fake cactus or two and a fake skull to pop in there with a black background.. think it'll look pretty cool. Yah its soft sand so then I am good. yay.
 
rallysman said:
If it is really fine it will almost feel like mud when you get the water in the tank (but it wont look like mud) and if your filter intake is too close it could mess the impeller(s) up. just another think to take into consideration
thanks I'll be sure to remeber that, so what about powerheads.. bad idea??
 
Just make sure that if you do any landscaping, so to say, in your tank, make sure you unplug the filter, cause even in the 55 gallon, if I move sand on one side, it alwaya seems to find its way to the other side and go right up the filter, and then all hell breaks loose, so just giving you a heads up.
 
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