Sand on the bottom?

[Sandy W]

Does anyone have any experience using sand (maybe an inch)on the bottom of the aquarium?

[Don Trinko]

I have sand in 2 tanks and gravel in all my other tanks. With sand the "crud" stays on top most of the time so it is obvious when there is crud on the bottom. With gravel it can sink in and look clead but need cleaning.
There is one potential problem with sand: Anerobic bacteria will occur if crud gets below the surface. If ennough occurs and it is stired up it produces hydrogen sulphide gas. ( poisonous in big quantities) For that reason you should stir the sand in some area each time you clean. Don T.

[Apistomaster]

I use a thin layer of sand and or FloraBase in all my tanks.
In the couple of display tanks I use a coarse sand, grain size of ~1/8 inch, so water circulates well enough through it enough to prevent anoxic conditions. Very fine sand is prone to the build up of anoxic areas below the top 1/2". Not really worth the extra trouble of trying to manually keeping aerated.

Gravel particles, grains sizes of 1/4" or more, when placed in thick layers tends to catch a lot of food which goes uneaten and then decays. This can contribute to high nitrate levels at best and ammonia and or nitrite problems at worst.

If you think a mixture of fine sand and gravel would solve the problem, you would be wrong. The fine sand fills in the interstices between the gravel size particles and you still end up with the same issues of fine sand.

It has become increasingly difficult to locate the coarse sands at fish shops that are safe for fresh water aquariums.

[corrosionjerry]

I use a thin layer of sand and or FloraBase in all my tanks.
In the couple of display tanks I use a coarse sand, grain size of ~1/8 inch, so water circulates well enough through it enough to prevent anoxic conditions. Very fine sand is prone to the build up of anoxic areas below the top 1/2". Not really worth the extra trouble of trying to manually keeping aerated.

Gravel particles, grains sizes of 1/4" or more, when placed in thick layers tends to catch a lot of food which goes uneaten and then decays. This can contribute to high nitrate levels at best and ammonia and or nitrite problems at worst.

If you think a mixture of fine sand and gravel would solve the problem, you would be wrong. The fine sand fills in the interstices between the gravel size particles and you still end up with the same issues of fine sand.

It has become increasingly difficult to locate the coarse sands at fish shops that are safe for fresh water aquariums.


gosh 1/8" is awfully large sand... what does it look like? does it have a trade name? can you post a picture?

Thanks

[deanne]

Yes, sand is my favorite new substrate. We were just talking all about it in the thread at http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=65269.

Pool filter sand is great and it's cheap. The light color has helped my discus look better. You see the poop more but that just means I clean house more often :-)

d

[corrosionjerry]

Yes, sand is my favorite new substrate. We were just talking all about it in the thread at http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=65269.

Pool filter sand is great and it's cheap. The light color has helped my discus look better. You see the poop more but that just means I clean house more often :-)

d

I went to a pool supply store today and the sand they had for pool filters was light brown like play sand..... is that what your talking about?

[Apistomaster]

gosh 1/8" is awfully large sand... what does it look like? does it have a trade name? can you post a picture?

Thanks
Jerry,
The material I use, when I can get it, it a #8 silica sand. It is sometimes marketed at Torpedo Beach Sand. It consists of sand that passes a #8 sieve and that which is retained on a #16 sieve. The mesh # is opening per inch and are standard sizes used by geotechnical labs and construction materials laboratories when running sieve analysis of soil samples.
The aquarium sand product is considered a gap-graded material. That is, it can not compact because the finer particles are missing that would ordinarily fill in the available spaces between the sand particles. This allows water to circulate through your substrate and prevent any formation of anoxic areas that promote the growth of anaerobic bacteria which form H2S production and "black" sand.
Torpedo Beach Sand is only a trade name for an over priced common #8 silica sand which is available somewhere for ~$8.00/100# bag. It has become difficult to find this gradation.
The trade named version was being sold by various large on-line/mail order fish supplies vendors. Here is what it looks like in one of my Discus tanks.
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t41/apistomaster/P8210047.jpg

[corrosionjerry]

Thanks so much for the explanation and the picture.... that is valuable information...

Jerry

[Pelle]

That was some realy nice Heckels you got there Larry.
You always show nice stuff:)

Pelle

[Apistomaster]

Hi Pelle,
Thank you for your nice compliments.