Sand Or Gravel

[Chelle]

sand is a blessing!! I LOVE IT!
I have play sand ( not my first choice mind you) in my communty tank. and its a dream.. I wouldnt trade it for anything in the world!

My 5 gallon has hartz gravel and grit in it. I LOVE it even more!! 
I will never buy gravel again. EVER!!

 There is no uneaten food. The waste is righ there, my ghosts are happy happy happy. My frogs can burrow or make caves.   There is no problem with my plants. They are loving it.  my baby snails done get lost in the gravel.

Honestly, I cant think of a bad thing about the sand. its just so much cleaner. even when I see the poop. I know its cleaner.  Not a blood worm in sight after I feed. my gravel tank is just awful with them. and I have ghosties. they just cant them all.

[aquagirl]

I have shell dwelling cichlids that require sand to dig in and came across a solution through another web site. The product is called Crystal Quartz by 3M. It comes in two sizes, S grade is equal in size to sand and T grade which is a little larger. I comes in an array of colors and contains no silicates. Now the surprise, it is not a pet product it is a pool product. A fifty pound bag costs anywhere from $22.00 to $35.00 depending what part of the country you live in. Some distributor's will even mix colors for you. I had a big problem with silicates and phosphates added to my drinking water, it was causing diatoms, making my natural color sand look really bad. My sand digging cichlids acted like it was sand . You can find a list of distributor's on 3M's web site. Many cichlid keepers are using the black S grade in place of the more expensive Tahitian moon sand.

[Lori]

Thanks for that tip, Dianne!  I'm going to go check their website.  All my tanks are sand except for one that's flourite.  I'm setting up another larger tank and don't want to mess with flourite again.  Cool!

[aquagirl]

Thanks for that tip, Dianne!  I'm going to go check their website.  All my tanks are sand except for one that's flourite.  I'm setting up another larger tank and don't want to mess with flourite again.  Cool!

It also rinses much easier than sand and doesn't seem to compact. I sent you a link. What size tank and what type of fish?

[Lori]

I got that link, thanks much!  It's for my 60, that's been sitting empty forever because I can't make up my mind what I want to put in it.  I know it will be planted.  Right now I have more plants than fish waiting for a new home.  I might just put my angels in there.  I can't decide. 

[Oscar]

I'm not sure if i saw this on this site or another but heres an easy way to turn over the sand in your tanks, i haven't tried it yet but it made since.  Take your gravel vac with the gravel attachment still on and shove it down into the sand,(make sure you don't move it) let it suck up the sand but stop the suction right before it gets to the top of the gravel attachment, then just let the sand fall back down.  the sand is now turned over and slowly pull the vac back out so that there is very little disturbance to the sand around it.

if anyone has tried this let me know if it works.  I am going to try this my next cleaning and I will also let you know.

[bulrush]

Yes I have done that...accidentally. I use malaysian trumpet snails to turn over the sand. They like to burrow in it and eat the anarobic bacteria in there.
 

[Lori]

I love MTS and have them in every tank, but mostly, I just get my hands in there and run it through the sand, lifting up wood and rocks to stir up any muck.  I also use a turkey baster to blow out the cracks between rocks where yuck likes to hide.  Just be sure to do this with your filter off so it settles back down to the bottom quickly.  Then after about ten minutes I go in with the vac.  My fish are used to it, so they don't even bat a fin at me.  They know they'll get treats after cleaning.

[Cholly]

I have never tried sand, but I have a preference towards under gravel filters. I like under gravel because vacuuming the gravel doubles as filter maintenance. I would point out to anyone who was inclined to do the same that regular maintenance is still required and that I wouldn't rely on air stones for lift, power heads are much more efficient.

[PureSnowChic25]

I'm not sure if i saw this on this site or another but heres an easy way to turn over the sand in your tanks, i haven't tried it yet but it made since.  Take your gravel vac with the gravel attachment still on and shove it down into the sand,(make sure you don't move it) let it suck up the sand but stop the suction right before it gets to the top of the gravel attachment, then just let the sand fall back down.  the sand is now turned over and slowly pull the vac back out so that there is very little disturbance to the sand around it. If anyone has tried this let me know if it works. I am going to try this my next cleaning and I will also let you know.

I was reading this thread and that's what I was thinking this whole time. Every time I do a water change that's what I do, I use eco-complete in one tank and Flourite Black Sand in another. When siphoning, I just stick the end in the sand and let it suck it up a few inches and I pinch the hose just enough that the water is still going through, but the sand floats back down, by the time the sand is back down all the cloudy water will be in your siphon and not in the water- you just unpinch the hose and by-by bad water... I've been doing it like this for years and it works very very well...



And on a side note... I don't like underground filters as they are not actually removing the waste from the tank...