TFA101

OK, probably most of you know by now that I'm getting a larger tank in a couple of years (-_-) and you guys have been great when it comes to helping me with my livestock plans (which I have once again modified), but I need some help with substrate. I want sand because I hear its more convinient when it comes to leftover food and the less strain it has on the barbels of the bronze cories I'm planning to keep, but I'm wondering how you clean it?

I use a typical water flow powered siphon that wont suck up the gravel because it's heavy. The water flow is strong though. If I use sand, and a siphon, being lightweight, wont the sand just end up getting sucked into the siphon and flow out into my "waste water bucket"?

Butterfly

I have sand in a couple of my tanks and I really like it. When you vacuum you don't push the siphon down in the sand like you do the gravel because stuff stays on the top, just wave the siphon over it slowly and watch the gunk get sucked up up and away Once in awhile I get close enough to get a tiny bit of sand but not enough to matter.
Hope that helped.
carol

Richard

Ditto on Carol's post.. I put up a similar question last year sometime, and based on the advice I got , I went sand in two of our tanks despite being a 'Nervous Nelly' about potential head-aches vacuuming those tanks.. bottom line, I wish I'd gone sand sooner!.. it really is very easy to clean a tank with a sand substrate and Loaches, Cats, Cories, they thrive in it.. whenever I think of the beauties( 2 albino Cories, a bronze and a zebra Cory along with a Ghost-Knife) I lost because I was worried about changing from gravel to sand, I throw my back out trying to kick myself!

Butterfly was one of those who gave me advice on my sand substrate query, and I'm just weighing in to tell you it'll be the way to go when you decide what Cories/ Cats/ Loaches to put in that bigger tank you're aiming for.

FishFolk

I'm a sand fan too. when we set up Cory's 1st tank - With Dino and Chief Water Changer - we were advised to use sand. I 'm sure Cory checked with others of FL and Butterfly may have been one of those with whom he spoke.

Point being that sand is super easy to clean. We actually do poke in the sand a bit but not too deeply and even then the sand doesn't go very far up the tube. I don't think we need to, but sometimes we do. Of course our water is weak - or at least it was until we got a new siphon and attached it to the outside faucet. Hmmm, that may suggest a bit of caution the next time I help with Cory's tanks. He has it all under control but if he is sick or out of town, someone has to jump in

I just put Sahara sand in my cichlid tank. I haven't cleaned it yet but already loving it. When I find my 29 ish, I am going with sand (pool filter type).

Dojella

Just the question I had. I just changed to sand (play sand from home depot) a week ago and was starting to wonder how the heck I was going to clean it. Love it so much more than gravel so far. We'll see how I feel when I do my first cleaning.

Christian Patti

I was just about to post a topic about this as I have been very skeptical about using sand in my new 55 gallon. It looks like sand is the way to go though. One question though, how thick do you make the sand?

thanks
-christian

Butterfly

Mine is about two inches
Carol

Ghostfish

I go with about 2 inchs myself. I have lots of plants that root. I agree it is a great substrate. I too use the play sand from lowes.

Dojella

I've got about 2" in mine as well (48" x 12"). A 50 lb bag of sand was enough for this (and I had enough left to do my 3 gallon).