Converting 150g tall from gravel to sand

[tremper]

Any advice on using sand as a substrate. I travel weekly so everything in my tank(s) has to be on auto pilot. I hear that playground sand available from HD / Lowes works fine. Thinking of stocking a smalll group of featherfins, a few leleupi and a group of 5 white calvus.

Also looking for featherfins locally if anyone has some they want to move. I do have 3 black calvus ranging from 2" to 3.4" to trade.

Any ideas, comments or other info?

Thanks all.

 

[MonteSS]

Get Pool filter sand. Much cleaner and bigger grained. Wont clog your filter and easier to vacuum.

....Bill

 

[Travis]

I second the PFS. ~$10 / 50lbs.

 

[jonclark96]

+3 on the pool filter sand. I cleaned an entire 50 pound bag in the same amount of time it took me to clean enough play sand for a 5 gallon tank. It just takes some practice on vacuuming.

 

[Avatar]

Nome Depot's "play sand" should be banned for use around children as...

...it's way too fine. There must be a pound of dust in a 10 pound bag and it's not the type of stuff that breaks down in your lungs - very very bad for mammals of any age and size. Stay away from this stuff.

 

[Charlutz]

Joe -

What kind of featherfins are you looking for and how long is that tank? I've got foai moliro marble greens. 1-2". I use Home Depot play sand in two 75 gallons. Never had a problem with it. You do have to rinse it well. I use eco complete also. Expensive, but it looks nice and no rinsing needed. Have also used black beauty. Not too much rinsing required and good but wouldn't use for sifters as it's not that fine. Sarah may have tried it with her sifters.

 

[bschuhart]

+4 pool filter sand.

 

[DonkeyFish]

+++infinity for pool filter sand. It's just the best. Not quite as cheap as play sand, but almost. And the aggravation you'll save rinsing is more than worth the difference--especially if you'll need enough for a fancy 150g tank! Not to mention it doesn't get sucked up as easily in the vac since the grains are a tad bigger (and more uniform). Only other sandy product I would ever use is the 3M Colorquartz "S", but that's getting to be difficult to find and not as cheap.

STAY AWAY FROM BLACK BEAUTY. It's welding slag. Very bad. If I were a bottom dweller or sand sifter or earth eater I would want to kill myself living in that stuff. Not to mention long-term potential issues from oxides and such leaching into the water column. No thanks. You'll know it when you see it, got sparkly bits and larger chunks here and there. Also VERY VERY fine. Borderline obnoxious to keep in a tank (at least the stuff I got which was bagged and sold as an actual substrate :angry3: ).

If you can't find the sand I've got a year-round supplier just down the street and could pick up a couple bags for ya. You'd owe me though... :angel2:

 

[tremper]

Thx for the 411 everyone. Especially DF (though I'm hesitant to owe YOU anything lest you want to collect!)

Charlie - The tank is a 150g tall with a footprint of 4'x2'. The foai are nice but i'm more interested in the boops. I was hoping to keep a small group of feather fins, maybe 1m/2f in the same tank with 5 small (<2") white calvus and a group of 3 neolam buescheri ZG's

Thoughts?

 

[Charlutz]

Gotcha. With that footprint, you should look for ventralis, nasutas or dewindi. The foai need more length though once you've had them for awhile, you can make a four foot tank work, but not recommended. No way that the boops would work. They are a wrecking crew in my 7 foot tank. You should try ventralis. Sarah's got them and I think she has fry, but check with her. The lights she has over her tank bleach out the colors , but I think hers are chaitikas, which I like a lot -- light shiny blue with black spots when the males get torqued up. In a four footer, you could do one male, or 3, but I don't think two, unless you have a whole lot of females. Also add some cyps for dithers. With the featherfins, calvus and buescheri, you might have too many groups competing for floor space. I'd scape it to have sandy areas on the ends to give two male featherfins a territory each, but then a center rockpile would limit the groups of alto and buescheri. If you did just one male featherfin, you could give him the middle with rocks on the ends for your two alto/lamp groups, but you'll need to give the females a place to retreat up high on the ends. Either tall plants or some other visual barrier. If you want to come by some night when you are picking up or dropping off your daughter I can show you how the tanks are scaped.

 

[cabinetmkr39]

+++++ Poolfilter sand.

 

[Charlutz]

STAY AWAY FROM BLACK BEAUTY. It's welding slag. Very bad. If I were a bottom dweller or sand sifter or earth eater I would want to kill myself living in that stuff. Not to mention long-term potential issues from oxides and such leaching into the water column. No thanks. You'll know it when you see it, got sparkly bits and larger chunks here and there. Also VERY VERY fine. Borderline obnoxious to keep in a tank (at least the stuff I got which was bagged and sold as an actual substrate :angry3: ).

I agree it's not for sifters because of the shape, but have you seen anything written on the long term health effects? I've used it for a couple of years and haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. I've seen lots of posts that say not to use it, but nothing citing any authority to say it leaches.

 

[longstocking]

I agree it's not for sifters because of the shape, but have you seen anything written on the long term health effects? I've used it for a couple of years and haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. I've seen lots of posts that say not to use it, but nothing citing any authority to say it leaches.

I have heard the "stories" for years as well...

But having used it for 6 years +/- and no issues to date.... I think it's all crap.

I have even used it with sand sifters... they breed too :lol: If it was that bad.... sand sifters would belly up.... they are just too sensitive to believe this...