Sand for Tank

[Marx]

What about those anerobic gas pockets and stuff?

hardening of the substrate?

[artw]

well if you use less than 1/2" of sand and mix it up every so often you wont get pockets
or just get cichlids and they'll mix it up for you

[Marc]

I've been using some wild-caught sand a bit over an inch in depth in my cichlid tank for a few years now.  The disadvantage is that the grain is very fine and it has a tendancy to get sucked up when I'm trying to vacuum the garbage off the top.  It does compact and does create anerobic gas pockets but these dont appear to have caused any adverse affects.

I just picked up some pool filter sand at Mermaid pools.  It's a medium brown  (darker than walnut)  and has a fairly coarse grain.  It shouldn't affect the pH since people don't want their pool pH messed with either.  It cost $7.99 for a 50 lb bag.

I'll be redoing my cichlid tank this weekend.  I'll be removing all of the wild-caught sand and replacing it with the pool filter sand.  I'll let you know how it goes.  I'll try to post a picture of the pool filter sand later tonight.

Marc

[Marx]

Hey i was thinking of making a layer of 1" of sand  on the very bottom and then makind another inch of fine gravel on the surface of the sand.. for a 2" bed..

Would that work ok?? the gravel will let oxygen threw to sand which inturn will have super surface area for bacteria to thrive.. also when i bury plant roots there will be sand there too..

how would that work??

[artw]

wild caught sand hehe
from what part of the lake hehe...  

[Marc]

Wild caught sand from Petrie Island on the exotic Ottawa River

[Marx]

lol.. you stole it from the beach or the Sand quarry? lol..

so hows my idea??

Hey i was thinking of making a layer of 1" of sand on the very bottom and then makind another inch of fine gravel on the surface of the sand.. for a 2" bed..

Would that work ok?? the gravel will let oxygen threw to sand which inturn will have super surface area for bacteria to thrive.. also when i bury plant roots there will be sand there too..

let me know plz

[Marc]

The sand quarry, when it was still there.  They had made sand barriers to stop vehicles from going onto their property.  I took a couple of bucket fulls of sand from their sand barrier.

As for your idea I'm no expert but it sounds reasonable.   Not because the sand gives surface area for bacteria to thrive in but because the sand gives the plants' roots something to root in.  I would suggest mixing some laterite in with the sand to enrich it.

Marc

[Marx]

cool... will do that then..

[Marc]

P.S.  The sand quarry is gone now and most of Petrie Island is now protected wildlife habitat so I don't recommend taking sand from there, especially from around the shore areas.

Nor do I recommend taking sand from the man-made beach area.

[Marx]

nono.. i have sand at home... i mean't i will add gravel to top layer lol and use some plant substrate mixed in..

[Marc]

Marx (and others),

I don't mean to discourage you from getting advice here, continue to do so, but  you spent hundreds of dollars buying your tank and equipment and will probably spend hundreds of dollars on fish and plants.

It's worthwhile to take a bit of your money and spend it on a few good books.  One of the plant books I recommend is Encyclopedia of Aquarium Plants by Peter Hiscock.  Almost half the book is comprised of information related to setting up your tank including lots of information on choice of substrate.

Marc

[Marc]

nono.. i have sand at home... i mean't i will add gravel to top layer lol and use some plant substrate mixed in..

My message was for people in general not for you in particular

[gvv]

Thanks for the info Marc!
I think I will have to make a trip to the Mermaid Pools.
I just made a trip to the nearest pool service store and they were confused with my question about poll filter sand! So the suggestion to go to "any pool store" does not work...

[Marc]

Mermaid pools really couldn't tell me much about the sand, except that it was brown.  Any real pool store will carry pool filter sand.  This is meant for the large filters used mainly for inground pools.  The water is pumped through the sand to clean the water.

[artw]

I wonder if we could do that with our systems.

...not fluidized beds,  real mechanical filters.

[Anubias]

Nice red sand. How do cryptsd do in it?

[Marc]

Here are some pictures of the sand I got at Mermaid Pools.  It's "Swimming Pool Filtration Sand" from the company "Multi-Sable R.C. Ltée."

[artw]

thats a really nice sand.
grains are 1/16 to 1/8" it appears.   I might go over to mermaid pools and get some what location did you get it from?

at what point does sand become "small gravel" ?  I would think 1/8" gravel wont compact and create anaeroboc pockets like regular 1/32" or 1/64" sand  will

[Marc]

I got it as Mermaid Pools on Ogylvie Road (east end not far from St-Laurent Shopping Centre).

The sand is indeed quite nice.  The grains are fairly uniform in size and there appears to be very little dust or other small particles.  A lot of the same concerns we have in aquariums are the same for pools.... no pH changes, no dust, no toxins.

It's not readily apparent from the picture but the ruler was lying  right on top of the sand which was still in the bag.