Aquarium Sand?

Question

I am thinking of purchasing some aquarium sand tomorrow, but I would like to spend the night doing some research on how to maintain, clean and the benefits of aquarium sand. The tank is a 16 gallon freshwater tank with 2 kribensis cichlids and zebra danios. Thanks for the info.

Answer 1

For my sand bottom tanks I use pool filter sand - cheaper and heavier so it wont get sucked into filter. Just rinse very well first ( until water runs clear) . From there just get some malaysian tumpet snails. They are a burrowing snail and will dig through the sand and prevent any gas pockets from forming. Also if you put live plants in they will not eat the plants. They will eat left over food, algae, and decaying plants- healthy plants are left alone

Answer 2

This depends on how you set up your aquarium;

Sand is good for heavily planted aquariums, as it provides a better anchor for the roots and even more important sand traps nutrients and symbiotic bacteria needed by plant roots.

If your aquarium is going to be only lightly or moderately planted, I recommend sand only in the area around the plant roots and #3 size gravel elsewhere.

If you are not going to have live plants, I would not suggest sand, but rather #3 or pea sized gravel.

The reason behind not having sand in non planted aquariums or only in planted areas of lightly planted aquarium is that sand can trap anaerobic bacteria that can produce toxic hydrogen sulfide.

For marine aquariums this is not a problem, and I use #00 aragonite or a base of sand with #3 crushed coral on top.for nitrate removal or de-nitrification.

For cleaning your aquarium a Gravel Vacuum attached to a siphon or re-circulating filter works best. If you have a planted aquarium with sand (3-5 cm), you should NOT vacuum the sand, as this will tend to be sucked all the way thru the vacuum, and this will also disturb the natural aerobic and anaerobic filtration going on in the substrate being performed by the bacteria and plant roots.
You can vacuum around the sand (or gently vacuum and lift carefully if no roots are nearby) and drain this water into a bucket or attach the siphon to a long hose and drain it outside or into a toilet using gravity.

For more basic aquarium information, please see this article of mine:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Basic_Aquarium_Principles.html

Answer 3

you should use playstand that has been washed. some sand, which includes argonite sand, will buffer the water, that you possibly do not choose. i imagine both seem acceptable, yet i'm a sand guy myself and love the seem of a sand mattress in a tank. Fish waste shows up somewhat extra (have you ever seen some black sand?) on white sand, besides the indisputable fact that it seems cool. you also get organic drifts from the water bypass. you may't gravel vac the sand as agressively, otherwise you'll basically finally end up vacing it up. so that you need to scrupulously vac away the right layer. Sand also desires somewhat bit a stiring each once in awhile to ward off anerobic elements coming up. an selection selection is an excellent white gravel. yet my $$ is on the sand.

Answer 4

well, I used regular play sand like you buy at home depot- but I washed it first, I used it in a 50 Gal tank with Goldfish.

it worked good, I had it in there about 2 years, but when I decided to change it, it took me forever to get the sand out and put what I wanted in there.

it is pretty and clean looking- your water will be cloudy at first- but if you have a power head- it will clear up within an hour!
good luck

http://www.geocities.com/asianangeldee/

Answer 5

if this is being used in a non planted tank you will have to dramatically increase the amount of catfish to keep the sand clean and stirred up or it will compact and harden up to create a nitritious trap.

Answer 6

hard task. research on the search engines. just that could actually help!

Answer 7

challenging issue. research on yahoo or google. this might help!

Answer 8

try askin someone at Petco or Petsmart