Substrate Question

[Cichlid-Man]

I've heard of a lot of people using 3M colorquartz before Ishar, i don't know if you can get it in Canadia though. Check pool places or sand blasting places. Tahitian Moon sand would work too, but its more expensive....big als carries that.

Originally Posted by RCHanlin

You'll have to excuse me but I'm seeing alot of discussion about using sand as a substrate... I'm putting my 150 back into operation after tearing it down from being a reef and I'm very curious... this is going to be a planted tank ... Sand is good for that ? I was really leaning towards a fine substrate like Eco-Complete. I'd really like to know more about sand. But it's got to be a PITA to clean plus you've got no way of maintaining biological filtration.. what about nitrates spiking up ?

Quite the opposite! Sand is VERY easy to maintain. Being so dense wastes just sit on top of the sand so all you have to do is hover the vac above the sand and suck up the wastes! Unlike gravel where you have to dig through it every water change. Sand would need stirring every once in a while to make sure no gas pockets are forming, but other then that its really easy to maintain.

With the wastes not being able to penetrate the sand, you arn't having any real dead spots with wastes just sitting there producing ammonia/nitrates like you would with gravel. Food and poo fall all in the cracks of gravel and sit there to where you might miss it during a WC. Over time what you missed is producing Ammonia/Nitrates. With sand, you see it, and you clean it.

Not to mention fish love sand, at least Cichlids do. They are actually helping you stir the sand by always sifting it and spitting it around.

It looks great too! I've seen many planted tanks with sand, whether its good specifically for plants or not is beyond me...

[minihorses4ever]

Originally Posted by Cichlid-Man

I've heard of a lot of people using 3M colorquartz before Ishar, i don't know if you can get it in Canadia though. Check pool places or sand blasting places. Tahitian Moon sand would work too, but its more expensive....big als carries that.



Quite the opposite! Sand is VERY easy to maintain. Being so dense wastes just sit on top of the sand so all you have to do is hover the vac above the sand and suck up the wastes! Unlike gravel where you have to dig through it every water change. Sand would need stirring every once in a while to make sure no gas pockets are forming, but other then that its really easy to maintain.

With the wastes not being able to penetrate the sand, you arn't having any real dead spots with wastes just sitting there producing ammonia/nitrates like you would with gravel. Food and poo fall all in the cracks of gravel and sit there to where you might miss it during a WC. Over time what you missed is producing Ammonia/Nitrates. With sand, you see it, and you clean it.

Not to mention fish love sand, at least Cichlids do. They are actually helping you stir the sand by always sifting it and spitting it around.It looks great too! I've seen many planted tanks with sand, whether its good specifically for plants or not is beyond me...

Yep, even my guppies will sift through it! They seem so happy with it.