kirsty0569

Hello,
I'm starting up a new 130litre tank, I will be slowly moving the fish occupying my 60litre tank to the 'new tank' when it has cycled. I am undecided whether to use sand or gravel or both. I have cory catfish in the community that will be moving and they seem to like the gravel, (the 60litre has gravel). We have another 53 gallon tank which has sand, there are rams in this tank and they like sifting through the sand. The sand looks nicer, but I want to use what is best for my fish. Other occupants will be boy dwarf gourami with his two girls, some cardinal tetra and I'd like to introduce a panchax and & maybe angel. Any suggestions would be helpful, I'm particularly thinking about my corys because they spend more time on the bottom.
Thanks!
Kirsty

platy ben

Corydoras LOVE sand
They sift through it all day long and if you have sand i find your corydoras will spend more time swimming around than just resting on the bottom

agabr123

platy ben is right, cories definitely prefer sand. it's also a lot easier on their barbels, which are very sensitive.

other than that, IMO sand is much easier to clean and doesn't make as much of a mess (unless you try to remove it when it's still wet.....for reference, that isn't a good idea ), basically with gravel all the waste sifts to the bottom through the pieces of gravel, whereas with sand the waste sits on top where you can easily pick it up with your gravel vacuum you will want to make sure that you drag the other end of an algae scrubber or something like that through the sand around in circles every so often to keep it aerated, otherwise pockets of dangerous gases can form.

griffin

i agree with the other posters.

i have cories with sand, and they love digging through the sand all day.

the only thing with sand is that if just left there, it will tend to form gas pockets over time. an easy way to avoid that is to just throw in some malaysian trumpet snails and have them go through your sand

hope that helps

kirsty0569

thank you! I will definitely go for sand. & thanks for all the brilliant advice;-)

griffin

you won't regret it! i find my tanks with sand are MUCH easier to maintain than those with gravel. i'm actually planning on changing my last tank to sand, so i'll only have a sand for all my tanks.

kirsty0569

I've set up the tanks with plant substrate and white sand, it looks great but best of all the corys love it;-)

griffin

yay!

midnightwolf

if you have a goby or some other fish that moves the sand around do you have to do that? what happens if you get a gas pocket?

agabr123

i say yes just because MOST don't get to the bottom of the sand (excluding malaysian trumpet snails). i guess if you get a gas pocket definitely a large water change, other than that i'm really not sure

lordingsy

Hi Kirsty, where did you get your sand from? I am looking for some substrate and sand the same as you.

Thanks

Chris

Jonah

Sand is sold in my LFS but I get mine from the local pool company its cheaper,exponentially cheaper.

Pool filter sand is ideal, the lfs also sells a grit called eco complete, I just put a layer of that on the bottom of the tank and then put the sand on top. I haven't found a cheaper supplier of eco-complete. Yet.

Just as i get my filter floss from craft shops and not the lfs same sized bags 1/4 of the price

midnightwolf

how do you know you have one?

agabr123

a gas pocket? you'll probably get a very strong sulfur smell.

midnightwolf

ok thanks i was just wondering for when i change my 55 to a saltwater community.

dianeej

I was also looking into using the sand in place of gravel when I set up my new 50 gallon tank, that hopefully I will have by summer. I have 2 DoJo's that like to root around. If you use sand, can you still use an UGF, or would the sand go through the slits in the bottom? I would think it would not be a good idea, but just thought I would ask. Thanks.

Iron waffle

Under gravel filters need gravel, or the sand would just clog the slits in the filter

agabr123

no problem i'm not sure what (if any) the difference would be for SW, hopefully someone else can give you more specific info.

Cordi

i never use gravel for any of my tanks as i see no need to give myself extra work.

if you use gravel all the waste from fish and food settles in the gravel, which means without weekly cleaning it can send your nitrate through the roof.

nothing can settle in sand, only on top of it.. so the filter collects all of it.

does mean filter cleaning more often, but then thats easy and about 1/6 the time it takes to clean gravel and it doesn't make the tank look like you've emptied a while pot of flakes in it whilst cleaning

summersquash

I have gravel in my tank. It hasn't been set up very long, but I think I would like sand. My question is "can I put sand over the top of the gravel?" The gravel is a beige color so it would look alright, but I don't want to mess up my cycle, or hurt my fish.

Stephen 31

Sorry to steal the thread but jonah what do you mean by local pool company? i always assumed when i see people saying that it was shops in the US where people had pools. so since your more local i'm assuming the same products would be available to me.
and on that note, do you know of anywhere that i could get black sand?
sorry again for stealing the thread

JoJo

I thought about going half river rock and half sand, will an external pump get clogged up with sand? and does the sand cloud up and do plants do well in it?. Are there any fish that should have sand in tanks. Sorry about throwing this question here for an old topic but I been thinking about using sand I just dont know how it is or what to do when I will maintain it.

soldieroffortune1974

My question is "can I put sand over the top of the gravel?" You could put the sand over the gravel, but over time the sand will sift down between the gravel anyway, water movement, fish, cleaning will cause the sand to filter down and fill the crevices. It wouldn't hurt anything either way,just make it more difficult to clean.

will an external pump get clogged up with sand? If the inlet tube is too close to the sand, it will suck it up and eventually clog the filter. Keep the filter inlet tube about 4 to 6 inches away from the sand and it wont be a problem.

does the sand cloud up not if it's cleaned properly. You need to wash the dust and debris out of it just like gravel,after that's done, it shouldn't cloud up.Now a lot of current and over zealous fish can stir up the bottom pretty good, but it settles down quickly.

do plants do well in it?. Most aquatic plants will do fine in sand, there's a few that prefer/need clay and gravel but for the most part they do well.

Are there any fish that should have sand in tanks Various fish have their preferences definitely. Most catfish prefer a sandy/muddy bottom. Loaches and other "river fish" prefer sandy bottoms as well, others seem not to mind, sand or gravel, or a combination of the 2.