Sand substrate

[Tautog]

I'd like to change my substrate from mostly gravel with some large rocks to sand.

Does anyone have an opponion of Play Sand from Home Depot or Pool Sand.

This is a big project planned for day after Christmas. I want to reduce places for waste to build up. I'm not raising live plants rather just artificial now.

[rickztahone]

Many here use sand and recommend it highly over gravel. The only thing better than sand is barebottom tanks. The key, at least from my reading through many, many posts, is to keep the sand layer on the thin side. You can always add more sand, but when you have too much, you can build up bad stuff, just as much as you can with gravel.

[discuspaul]

And save yourself a lot of work and frustration by getting clean #20 or #30 grade silica pool filter sand (preferably from a pool supply store), rather than getting generally dusty, dirty, & gritty play sand, which requires copious rinsing before use and may still cloud your water. It's also usually very fine, compacting easily which increases the risk of anaerobic gas pockets developing, and does not grow plants as well if you do any planting.

[FishFanMan]

Yup, almost impossible to keep it clean. I just removed my sand from my tank recently which meant my beautiful plants had to go too. But plants grow well in sand or PFS.

[Len]

Yup, almost impossible to keep it clean. I just removed my sand from my tank recently which meant my beautiful plants had to go too. But plants grow well in sand or PFS.

I disagree with two parts of that statement. Sand isn't hard to keep clean at all -- siphon waste food from the top and also make sure you stir it up regularly to make sure there isn't waste getting trapped in it. Also in my own experience, plants don't root well at all in sand. They may survive, but I've never gotten them to flourish.

[Frankr409]

I disagree with two parts of that statement. Sand isn't hard to keep clean at all -- siphon waste food from the top and also make sure you stir it up regularly to make sure there isn't waste getting trapped in it. Also in my own experience, plants don't root well at all in sand. They may survive, but I've never gotten them to flourish.agreed I use blowers to essentially rake all of the waste into the water column where it goes into to filtration where I can deal with it.

[Tautog]

Thank you all. I want pool sand after everything I've read. I'll will post my project when I have completed it b

[OC Discus]

I added pool filter sand from Home Depot and removed it two different times. While it has its good points, I prefer the ability to completely remove all the waste. I always got a build up on the surface of the sand that couldn't be vacuumed out. I think the most attractive sand is the super fine white sand, but I've never used it.

[Ryan]

My suggestion is just to use a very thin layer. It's easy for feces and uneaten food to get trapped under the sand and then it just sits there and rots. Nothing will wreck your water quality faster than rotting food and detritus in sand or filters. You can address that by stirring it frequently when siphoning, or using a very thin layer so you can move it around a bit with each siphon. My nitrates built up a lot faster in my large cichlid community tanks when I had thicker sand, so now I only keep it maybe 1/2" thick and it's so much more manageable.

[Gunn]

I use quikrete play sand, pre rinsed which means much less rinsing for you at home, incredibly easy to clean up, and only $6 for 30 kg.

[jsullins]

I would use the stuff from leslies pool supply vs the play sand from home depot.

[DISCUS STU]

I use good ol' Hudson River sand that I've run under hot water. A friend used to use Passaic River sand. I've grown plants in this plain old sand, which costs nothing, and siphon vac. the top to remove detritus, also know as gunk. If I'm a little lazy on the water change that day, I can run a fine mesh, long handle, white brine shrimp net over it to get the gunk out.

It works, looks good, doesn't cost anything and is easy to work with. I keep about a 2 inch layer in my planted 55 gal. tank. Occasionally I'll scrape away algae from the front glass pane where it makes direct contact with the sand to remove algae that grows there.