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Thread: White sand bottom

  1. #16
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    James Walker

    Default Re: White sand bottom

    If it is too fine you'll have a problem sucking up the waste without removing your sand. If it is cheap and you aren't sucking all of it up then that might be OK, you can just periodically top up what you lose. You definitely want to keep the cleaning as easy and straightforward as possible.

  2. #17
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    george melendez

    Default Re: White sand bottom

    Pet Smart has national geographic Aquarium sand, i use it in my 450gal tank, i have at least 5" of sand throughout, it is probably the best aquarium sand. It is not difficult to clean but it is more time consuming than BB. You're gonna stir it up a bit when vacuuming so i go ahead and get a little aggressive and turn it over a bit. Your fish will love it.

  3. #18
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    Default Re: White sand bottom

    Well I put sand in the tank and my discus seem to be liking it I tried posting a pic but it doesn’t seem to work . With the Corey’s should I add any meds to the qt tank at all ?

  4. #19
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    Default Re: White sand bottom

    Pic
    Attached Images Attached Images

  5. #20
    Registered Member ggillies's Avatar
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    Default Re: White sand bottom

    White Pool sand in my 200 gallon.

    full tank 1.jpg

  6. #21
    Registered Member RickMay1's Avatar
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    Rick May

    Default Re: White sand bottom

    Have your cake and eat it too. Paint the bottom of the tank (on the outside) with sand textured paint. It looks great but you still have the bare bottom. use something like this. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Ole...3524/202058518

  7. #22
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    Default Re: White sand bottom

    Just wow ggillies that is amazing! I’m slowly adding things to my tank it’s been running for about 8 months now just wanted my discus to get a little bigger

  8. #23
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    Default Re: White sand bottom

    Quote Originally Posted by RickMay1 View Post
    Have your cake and eat it too. Paint the bottom of the tank (on the outside) with sand textured paint. It looks great but you still have the bare bottom. use something like this. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Ole...3524/202058518
    that looks like it would work good and look good but I wanted to try sand out and put cories in there as well

  9. #24
    Registered Member ggillies's Avatar
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    Default Re: White sand bottom

    Thank you. I had to wait 4 months for my 200 gallon tank to be made, so I slightly over-obsessed with the design and setup of the tank. I knew I was putting Discus in it, so I had a ton of time to plan things out. I had the tank up and running with the landscape and plants and the non-Discus fish and invertebrates in it for 3 months before putting the Discus in the tank.

    I used plain old pool sand from my local Pool supply store and rinsed the living hell out of the sand at least 6 times before putting it into the tank. I use root tabs for keeping the plants happy, as well as some liquid ferts.

    I think the key to my tank is that I have a large and diverse cleanup crew, to the point where after feeding the Discus, there's not a scrap of food left 5 minutes afterwards. I have a dozen Cories, 20 Otocinclus, about a dozen Viper shrimp, about 20 Amano shrimp and around 80 nerite snails, as well as a couple of bristlenose Plecos. That's not even taking into consideration the Buenos Aires Tetras (which are ravenous all the time) and the Cardinal and Ember Tetras which eat the smaller particles that the Discus miss.

    With the two Fluval FX6 filters stuffed with media and the 1650 GPM circulation pump, my water parameters stay really good and clean. My nitrates never get above 10ppm and are mostly 0-5ppm. That's 3 X 30% water changes per week.

    My Cories and Otos regularly photobomb me when I'm trying to take pictures of the Discus.

    Cheers. bfb.jpg20181124_131857.jpg
    Last edited by ggillies; 12-03-2018 at 08:13 PM.

  10. #25
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    Default Re: White sand bottom

    Thanks you for sharing I hope one day my tank could look like that . I’m just always scared to add anything to the tank as I don’t want to get my discus sick and your discus are amazing . Do u ever clean your sand at all?

  11. #26
    Registered Member ggillies's Avatar
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    Default Re: White sand bottom

    Quote Originally Posted by Kfactor View Post
    Thanks you for sharing I hope one day my tank could look like that . I’m just always scared to add anything to the tank as I don’t want to get my discus sick and your discus are amazing . Do u ever clean your sand at all?
    Yes, I use a large Python to "vacuum" and clean the sand during one of my 3 water changes per week. I kind of stir the sand up quite a bit and disturb it; quite frankly, the Cories do a fabulous job of endlessly sifting through the sand and getting every last speck of food, as do the snails.

    One thing that has surprised me is that the Discus also go to the bottom and will clean up morsels that have sunk to the bottom and are on or in the sand. I had no idea that they also "sifted" a little bit!

  12. #27
    MVP Oct.2015 discuspaul's Avatar
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    Default Re: White sand bottom

    Quote Originally Posted by Kfactor View Post
    Thanks you for sharing I hope one day my tank could look like that . I’m just always scared to add anything to the tank as I don’t want to get my discus sick and your discus are amazing . Do u ever clean your sand at all?
    Should your sand become discolored (i.e. dirty-looking) over time, or begin to attract some light coatings of algae, simply siphon out the top layer, say about 10% - 15%, and replace it with new sand - just like brand new!

    I've found you can keep the sand looking fresh all the time, simply by doing this every 4 months or so.

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