nowaygourmet

So I'm new to this site and to a large tank. I haven't set it up yet, I am taking my time and doing as much research as possible to make sure it's perfect for me and my fish.

I am setting up a 75 gal tank. I have a pleco that will be going into it and plan on purchasing a pair of blood parrots and possibly a silver tip shark.

I live close to a river. Is it safe to use gravel or sand from there?

I also prefer the look of sand but would like some opinions on sand vs gravel and the pros and cons on them as well as I am not sure which to use.

Anything you can offer this newbie is appreciated. Thanx.

nowaygourmet

Ok, I've just found another thread advising against river sand due to all the things that might be in there. It also suggested play sand......how is play sand different from sand I would purchase from the pet store??

Nutter

Play sand is cheaper by a long way than aquarium/pet store bought sand. Pool filter sand is also quite acceptable & usually very cheap. The stuff you get from aquariums will cost you a bundle more. Aquarium sand does come in different compositions though to suit different types of aquariums, eg crushed coral sand for high pH tanks. You can also get a few different colors from most aquariums so you don't have to have just plain white.

Sand generally requires a little bit more maintainance than gravel does. It compacts quite easily & because of the lack of water flow there is very little oxygen in the substrate. This can lead to what is called anerobic conditions & gases that are poisonous to your fish & plants can develop. It is easy to avoid these gases becoming a problem by giving the sand a gentle stir through, right to the base glass to release the gases & allow oxygen to penetrate. There are some snails that dig around in the sand & help with this as well as many fish such as Khuli Loaches. It's not as bad as it sounds at first though & so long as the maintainance is done properly & regularly sand makes an excellent substrate material for many tanks. Sand also requires being a bit more delicate with vaccuuming as it is easily sucked out of the tank when using a siphon. The trick is to hold the vaccuum just above the surface of the sand so that debris are picked up in the siphon but the sand is mostly left undisturbed. Debris will also be more visible with a sand substrate as it tends to sit right up on the top instead of breaking down & into the spaces between particals. Personally I prefer to use gravel substrates as they are easier to maintain in that the gases have a much harder time forming because water travels through the gravel much easier & supplies oxygen to the bacteria that will form in there. Alot of my preference is because I have alot of tanks & it is quicker & easir to maintain for me. Gravel substrates are an excellent medium for good bacteria to colonise. These good bacteria are usefull for helping break down fish wastes.
How much to use depends on what exactly you want to have in the tank. If it is for fish only then about an inch of substrate will do just fine. If you want to have live plants though you will need to have a deeper substrate of at least 2inches, maybe even more.
I would need the footprint size of your tank before I could recommend an actual amount in weight. This will also depend on the partical size if you choose to have gravel rather than sand. The larger the particals the more air there is between them & the less substrate material you will need. You don't want to go too large with gravel though or lots of excess food & other wastes will get trapped down in it where you can't easily siphon it out. Partical sizes between 3 & 8mm are best for using gravel & the largest partical size you can get for sand.

aquarist48

Hello NoWay and Welcome to Fish Lore. From everything I've read on sand, pool filter sand is much better than play sand. Pool filter sand cleans and rinses much easier.
Best of luck with your new tank. I hope you can share some photos along the way. Enjoy the site!
Ken

michaelb323

I went with play sand because I wanted the more natural brown over white, it is indeed more work to maintain due to the irregular size of the grains.

The thinking behind not using river sand is that most rivers are badly polluted. If you were grabbing your sand from a clean stream in the mountains somewhere, indeed feel free to do so, but if you cannot guarantee the cleanliness of the sand, stay away from it.

Look for your sand at the local home improvement store, you will be very proud of how much money you have saved.

Be sure to thoroughly rinse the sand in a five gallon bucket and pour off the water several times to get rid of the smallest particles, what you should be left with is a less cloudy tank when the time comes to add your sand.