sammy boy

i want to change my tank gravel to fine sand. like the sand on beaches. but i have a pleco. when he is laying on the ground breathing will he accidentaly suck up some sand and choke on it? or will he be fine.

mathas

My plecos do find in a tank with pool filter sand, but I'm not sure how that compares to other sand as far as grain size.

griffin

i've had plecos with a sand substrate, and it was fine

Dino

Be aware that fine sand can cause issues with motors and impellers in filters.

goggles2

if you have some sponge or pantyhose around your filter intake as a guard it can help keep fine sand out

Iron waffle

As far as i know, it is ok. If the pleco inhales sand, il will spit it out , my cories and my pleco do that all the time.

sammy boy

what about pool filter sand?

mathas

My plecos do fine with pool filter sand. It also doesn't seem to float in the water for more than a second or so when disturbed, which keeps it out of the filters and avoids the impeller/motor issues Dino mentioned.

Dino

Pool filter sand would be a much better choice.

Butterfly

I don't have any problems with my filters in the pool filter sand tank.
Carol

ewolfe315

My Pleco has lived in gravel,then fine sand, so no worries there. The only problem with the sand was his swimming and creating sand dunes in the tank. Which got out of hand as it always got into the filter creating problems.

Ended up getting rid of the sand for good and never again will I use sand.

John

GreenMan13

If your pleco is large you will get stuff like John but that can be remidied by a sponge around the intake on the filter like goggles2 said. My pleco created large dunes so don't ecpect to control the depth of the sand in any spot of the tank as it will get stirred a lot by the pleco.

ewolfe315

Greenman is right on with that. my pleco is exactly 10 inches long and have him in a 120 gallon planted tank. Had to move him for a few days into a 20 gallon tank(was sand) and it was a mess.

My wife thought that I was the one that did that to the sand. There was absolutely no sand on either side of the tank with that beast in there,everything was in the middle of the tank.

I even tried a sponge on the filter and it still came through up into the impeller.

Now that he's back in the 120 gallon, all I do everyday is replant on average 3 to 4 plants every morning. These plants are never gonna get any root system with him in there.

Whom ever wants him can have him as he is just going to get bigger. The 5 foot tank is getting a bit small for him.

John