Can I have sand substrate for a betta? I've got this cool idea for a beach themed tank, but I wanted to see if I could use sand before I got too overly excited about it. Thanks!
Sand is not a good idea with Bettas. They tend to swallow anything small and can die from eating very small pebbles and sand. Also, sand is VERY hard to vaccum and keep clean. The best substrate is anything big enough to not be able to be swallowed by the Betta.
Wish I didn't live in a duplex or I would have a whole room devoted to tanks. Right now I've got a 55 in the living room, a 20 by my computer desk, a 20 and a 10 in my room.
Otherwise I'd be getting more tanks everytime i had some extra money
I'm getting a new tank and a tank stand for my birthday! hehe thought I would just chime in because I'm lucky. It's and Eclipse 6 gallon, and Romeo is getting a new home as soon as it cycles. Of course I don't have any room for it, so a dog crate had to be disassembled to make room. My 12 yo shepherd will just have to sleep on the dog bed instead lol...
And to keep it on topic, today I bought the substrate for the new tank and I think it is going to look very nice. It is very small polished stones, and has a nice natural look. Of course it doesn't fit in with your beach theme...
That looks exactly like the gravel I use in my tanks. I love it! It looks natural and it never looks dirty and algae covered like the colored gravel. I bought some of the same polished pebbles in a larger size to mix in with the smaller ones and give more of a natural look. It's really the best gravel I'd recommend for any tank, especially Bettas.
Oh I'm glad to hear it! I have a purple/green/blue mixture of gravel in the hex5 and it gets so yucky looking when there's algae on it. I was hoping that this new stuff would work out nicely! I am eventually going to change that stuff out of the hex to this more natural look along with the drift wood that's still soaking out in the garage.
I did see that there was some gravel about this size and the same brand in a white color at the store. Maybe something like that would work as a sand substitute?
Can I have sand substrate for a betta? I've got this cool idea for a beach themed tank, but I wanted to see if I could use sand before I got too overly excited about it. Thanks!
Would the flat marbles they put in vases work for your beach theme idea? we use them for our betta tanks.
I'm pretty sure I have that exact same spectra stone gravel (Jendayi) in my Betta tank, except I mixed it with some larger, darker brown gravel. I also love their black gravel. I use it in my 20 long and it looks very cool imo. I find that algae does tend to grow on the black gravel, but if I mix it up a bit while gravel vacuuming then the algae covered gravel gets turned over and it looks nice again.
Yeah marbles are also an ok substrate, if you don't mind that they don't look especially natural.
Would the flat marbles they put in vases work for your beach theme idea? we use them for our betta tanks.
That might just work. My only concern would be the amount I would need (its a 20 gallon tank). Is there anywhere where I can buy more than a small bag of them? I've got this whole tank planned out, I want to find little plastic beach chairs and an umbrella and find something that resembles palm trees or something...kinda cheesy yes, but I know my daughter will love it.
We found the cheapest place to get them is at The Dollar Tree.. you get a pound for a buck and a lot of them have a pretty decent color selection. Even the crafts dept. at wallyworld is cheaper than buying them at the LFS/LPS. I've not seen any large bags of them though, other than clear (3 lb).
They're not the most 'natural' substrata and they do make for a little more cleaning but they're smooth and easy on bettas fins and look great under lights.
I think there's a dollar tree right next to one of my college class buildings, i'll have to check it out monday. I think they may look cool with the sand too (if i decide to go that route) thanks for the great idea!
I hope to get started on something this week. I have this amazing picture in my mind of what I want it to look like, but we'll see how it actually turns out! I'm having a hard time finding the right sized plastic beach items. I did see a tank that had some corona bottles in it, so i might add something like that to it. Or maybe I'll get lucky and find exactly what I'm looking for in the store and will be able to do it exactly as I want to.
have you looked at stores like michaels? sometimes they'll stock little items like that in the cake decorating section.. although you'd probably have an easier time finding it at an online store.
Petsmart sells palm tree ornaments and also some "classic" car ornaments that also have airstones. I saw the palm tree and car set up in one of the tanks and it looked kind of beachy.
So I feel like an idiot...
So since I was doing weekly water changes today, I decided to go ahead and change my gravel to sand in my 20 gallon tank. I made sure I rinsed the sand really well, then put it in the tank. That was about 2 hours ago, and the water is still so cloudy you can't see the back of the tank. I'm hoping it just has to "settle" but I have a feeling it'll do this every time I add water. The filter sucked up some of the sand as it was floating around in the water, so i had to take that apart to clean it out. It's starting to be a LOT more work than I thought. My worst fear now is that the sand isn't going to work and I am going to have to take it all out, which will not be fun. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this i am open to anything at the moment. (did i mention I've been doing all of this as we've been having tornado warnings and the sirens going off? luckily all my fish stuff are in the basement of the house so we've been hanging out down here anyway!)
i'd put in some filter floss or something to try and get the particulates out.
i also keep a sponge over my intake to prevent sand from getting into my filter when i add water too quickly. however, once it's in the tank and settled, i havn't really had a problem with it coming back up. now i keep the sponge there as additional biofilter area.
once you get the sand in and settled, it's a lot less work than any other substrate i've ever used
i'd put in some filter floss or something to try and get the particulates out.
i also keep a sponge over my intake to prevent sand from getting into my filter when i add water too quickly. however, once it's in the tank and settled, i havn't really had a problem with it coming back up. now i keep the sponge there as additional biofilter area.
once you get the sand in and settled, it's a lot less work than any other substrate i've ever used
How fine is the sand you use? What kind of fish do you have with the sand substrate?
We have sand in our reef tank and it doesn't usually take too long for it to settle. We try to add the water into the filter area during water changes, and not directly into the tank. That keeps from disturbing the sand pretty well.
I've got this whole tank planned out, I want to find little plastic beach chairs and an umbrella and find something that resembles palm trees or something...kinda cheesy yes, but I know my daughter will love it.
I LOVE this idea!!!! It'll take me years, but I want to do the same thing!
Sand is a really fine substrate for some fish and the Catfish types do well with it but any fish like BETTAS who are little gluttons and eat anything they can get in their mouths cannot and should not be put in any tank that contains a sand substrate. They are gorgeous tanks and have some really nice advantages but there are also some disadvantages, like the substrate needs to be stirred every so often either manually or by keeping snails to do it for you or gases build up that can kill your entire fish population. This is not normally a problem with a gravel substrate as it is taken care of with gravel maintenance.
....and yes I did lose a lovely white betta female who ate a fine grained substrate called EcoComplete that has a texture like coarse sand. It has a solid black color so it was easy to see the black material through her little white hide. She was totally plugged with it. Her death was not an easy or painless one and it made me very sad. I would never put another betta in any tank with small substrate.
yea, our bettas and platys both will pretty much suck down whatever happens to be in the way of their mouths.. even with the flat marbles, we'll see our bettas often stick their noses into the marbles looking for food. (who says they don't eat off the bottom? lol). that's a tough way to lose a Betta like Rose did and i'd much rather go betta-safe.
....and yes I did lose a lovely white betta female who ate a fine grained substrate called EcoComplete that has a texture like coarse sand. It has a solid black color so it was easy to see the black material through her little white hide. She was totally plugged with it. Her death was not an easy or painless one and it made me very sad. I would never put another betta in any tank with small substrate.
How awful...
I decided to turn my 20 gallon community tank into the "beach tank" so far everyone is doing really well and it looks awesome! And Betta is safe in the tank with the black rock, although I'm thinking about switching him to the larger "natural" stone gravel that I have. LoL I'm always into re-decorating my house, looks like I've moved on to doing it with the fish tanks too!
I decided to turn my 20 gallon community tank into the "beach tank" so far everyone is doing really well and it looks awesome! And Betta is safe in the tank with the black rock, although I'm thinking about switching him to the larger "natural" stone gravel that I have. LoL I'm always into re-decorating my house, looks like I've moved on to doing it with the fish tanks too!
Similar Aquarium Fish Forum Threads 
okay thanks for the info. looks like i'll have to do it with a different tank or wait on the beach theme. or buy another tank 
It's and Eclipse 6 gallon, and Romeo is getting a new home as soon as it cycles. Of course I don't have any room for it, so a dog crate had to be disassembled to make room. My 12 yo shepherd will just have to sleep on the dog bed instead lol... 
I am eventually going to change that stuff out of the hex to this more natural look along with the drift wood that's still soaking out in the garage.
Peace Out Callum!
