Can you put sand instead of pebbles on the bottom of my aquarium?

Question

If so, how do i keep the water from getting muddy and/or dirty?

Answer 1

I have used sand and it works well and its self sustaining if you do it right. You need to make sure that you get a clean sand and then sterilize it by baking in the oven at 350 for 45 min; let it cool then put it in the tank, add the water, it will be silty for about an hour or so but will settle. you wont be able to vaccuum the tank so make sure you get snails and other scavengers as well as lots of live plants. Add plants first, then 1 or 2 fish and a scavenger or two then slowly build up to the tank max. This is a really cool way to set up a "natural" ecosystem. Just make sure that you balance the system properly. no more than 1 inch of fish for every gallon of water, 2 small plants per gallon or 1 medium live plant per gallon of water or 1 large plant per gallon and a half. 1 invertebrate or other scavenger for every gallon of water Shrimp are cool as well as small snails. If you use fishy or very large scavengers they count for the 1 inch rule. Do not put this type of tank in direct sunlight and do not leave your tank light on for more than 8 hours or you will have a major algae problem.

Answer 2

Well, I used crushed coral.  The fish moved it around quite a bit.  In fact, the tink tink tink of them spitting it onto the glass everymorning is usually what woke me up. The crushed coral will help to buffer your water, and one of the best reasons to use it, IMO.  The coral sand, if that is what you want to use would work just as well in my opinion.  They are going to move whatever you put in there, believe me.  They make huge mounds of it against the glass. I don't know about it being more natural to them, as there isn't any coral in the rift lakes.  There are shells however, which when they break down look about the same as coral sand.

If you don't need the buffering of the coral, you could just use regular pebbles, but I wouldn't use the gravel from the fish store that is colored by an epoxy on the outside. I found that it wears off really easily and makes a horrible mess.  Just go get some river pebbles from a local landscaping place, making sure you rinse it really well in dechlorinated water. It will not only look a ton better and more natural, but it will cost you a lot less in the long run as well.


The fact that they move so much of the bottom material though means that you have to be very careful about your rock work.  A tip someone told me when I started my tank was that before you set the tank up, spread a layer of aquarium sealant (100% pure silicone, no additives) on the bottom of the tank.  Then pull a comb or fork through it so that it makes little ridges.  This will make a cushion on the bottom of your tank so that if the cichlids remove all the bottom material from beneath the rockwork, it won't be as likely to crack from the weight of all the rock resting on bare glass.  Believe me, this one little step will save you tons of worry.  You still want to be careful stacking rock though, make it as stable as possible so that there is little chance it will fall into one of the side panes if the do remove the gravel from underneath it.  I never had it happen, but I worried about it.
Man, was this long enough or what, LOL?

Answer 3

Sure you can use sand. make sure it's clean before putting in tank. The water will cloud but it will go away by the next day. It can be syphoned if you are carefull. Slowly and with your finger over the end of tubing let only so much water in at a time. Works excellent and looks great too. Do you have a salt or fresh water tank. If fresh be carefull with coral it will raise the PH a lot.

Answer 4

The heavier particles of sand do stay on the bottom of the tank, the lighter ones will get removed by your filter. The tank can get very cloudy when you first add it, but it does clear up in a day or so. Sand is more difficult to clean as gravel vacuums do not work well on them. Your best bet is to spot clean it with a small siphon tube.
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Answer 5

I have pool filter sand in my aquariums.
The sand has to be washed before putting it in the tank.
Cleaning the sand is easy as all the waste is visible and stays on top. When you are doing your water change just syphon up the visible waste.
The water doesnt get any more muddier or dirtier than if you would use gravel.

Answer 6

You can but it's a real pain in the a s s! You need to wash the sand in a bucket first so you don't get excessive clouding (and even with this you are still going to get some clouding to start).

Also - depending on your filter I would consider making sure you don't keep your intake valve too close to the bottom, and if it is (say for instance in the case of a canister filter) get a piece of panty hose (no joke) and put it on the outside of the valve (so no grains get sucked in).

Good luck!

Answer 7

You can, but it makes siphoning a bit more challenging, as the sand will slowly get sucked out even if you are careful.

You keep the water from getting dirty by siphoning it weekly.

Answer 8

You can use sand if you also use an external filter system. There are some nice salt water systems available. Not cheap, but good.

Answer 9

You could, but how would you clean it? If you use a suction (syphon) vac, you would suck in all the sand. It would also get trapped in your filters. Stick with gravel.

Answer 10

Not If you have a big and power full pump it will get clogd and the pump will make a mini tornaton in the tank