What is the best kind of sand?

Question

I am starting an African Cichlid tank. What kind of sand is the best to use?

if i wanted gravel, I would have asked what the best gravel was. But, I want sand.

Answer 1

That's some great input I think from soopy. Well thought and presented. I don't see anything wrong with using crushed coral, but you really don't have to go that route if you don't want. I use gravel myself and just add a hardness conditioner when doing water changes, and that seems to work pretty well too. With that note, if you can find the crushed coral good for you, but I wouldn't go out of my way for that. Whatever sand you can get that doesn't cut into your budget, just get. If it's not crushed coral, for about 8 dollars, you can just get a hardness conditioner to add to your water changes and cover the hardness.

FOLLOW UP:

Expensive?? Not even close. A 7 dollar bottle, and 1 capful treats for 10 gallon? Ok if you buy a bottle that has like only 10 capfuls I'd concede that, but a bottle even split over three tanks like I use still lasts over a month. If someone can't afford 7 a month for a bottle, I don't think they should keep fish. You get your sand, if it's crushed coral, great, but if you can't find that, there certainly isn't any need to go out of your way as I'm saying, you can cover the hardness with conditioner, and is not even close to what is expensive.

FOLLOW UP 2:

Again the point is, if you can't find that sand, why go out of your way for it? It's not going to cost a massive amount to simply use the conditioner. That is the whole point for the follow up Patrick. Your first follow up was indicating about money, I'm just simply saying, the amount you'd pay for that is not expensive or excessive if the sand you are advocating, is not around or available. It does work wonders too. My Africans never started breeding until I began using it.

Answer 2

The "average" African Cichlids (those from the 3 main lakes: Tanganyika, Malawi, and Victoria) are found in hard, alkaline waters. Unless your tap water is well above 7.0 and relatively hard, you will want sand that buffers the water to make it harder (even if your tap water is hard and alkline, having a buffer is still a good idea). Crushed coral sand slowly leaches calcium carbonate into the water, which provides a stable buffer, hardening your water and raising the pH). Any sand made of calcium based material (coral, limestone, marble) will have the same affect, but crushed coral is easiest to find. Also, those who spoke of sand being bad for freshwater tanks probably haven't tried it.

Soop Nazi

EDIT: The only issues I see with hardness conditioners is that you will eventually end up paying more on conditioners that have to be added three or four times a month than you would on sand (which is an initial purchase). Also, if you forget to add the condioner even once, it isn't a big deal, but when you add it back, that creates a huge amount of stress on the fish as the water changes from whatever your tap water is like (presumably soft if you actually need to use the conditioner in the first place) to hard.

EDIT 2: I never said the hardness conditioner was "expensive", I just pointed out that you will pay more in the long run for a conditioner than you would for coral sand. I just don't see any positives to a conditioner (which I have yet to find in a fish store) that will cost about $25+ a year (with which you still run the risk of fluctuations) when you could pay $25 for coral sand that will last the life of your tank...

Answer 3

just plain medium sized gravel

Answer 4

I don't think you need sand. I have an African Cichlid tank that is doing just great. Instead of sand i have gravel and that gives the live plants something to hold on. If I were you I would put some live plants in your tank and see how they do. This is good because you can see if the tank is suitable for fish to live in. Also, the plants provide oxygen for the fish. Hope this helps!