Sand or gravel discussion.

[Hawkins_Mbunas]

I personally have only used gravel in my tanks. Ive never used sand before. I would like to get the opinion of some other keepers.
1. Does sand cause more damage to your impellers?
2. Does sand really help with nitrates and nitrites due to waste not getting down in it?
3. Do the cichlids enjoy digging in sand better?
4.Do you have problems with cloudyness after cleanings and water changes.

PS. I keep mostly Mbunas.


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[Jefft]

substrate

I used the crushed coral little white pebbles and had two larger acei die from getting the pebbles lodged in their mouths. They were able to close their mouths so I didnt know till after I pulled them from the tank. I have also used super fine sea sand which was a total nightmare. It kept the water cloudy and I found tons of it up in my filter. Eventually it would work its way through the filter sponge and back out into the tank water adding to the cloudy issues. When I drained the tank and got rid of the sand I ended up having to change water like 5 times cleaning the filter and sponge each time before I finally was able to rid myself of all the sand particles. Then I went to pool filter sand I havent had any isssues and yes the fish dig in it like there is no tomorrow. I dont have issues with cloudiness. I cant say about the nitrates and nitrites as I dont really test anymore I just do water changes 1x per week. Pool filter sand less than 10.00 for a 50 lbs bag. There is a spot close to me in Glen Burnie, MD. called Ram flooring which has different colored stuff I will be using that for my big tank which has all crushed sea shells now. Their stuff comes in various sizes and runs roughly 30.00 per 50 lbs bag. Considering what fish keepers pay for caribe or other substrate materials 30.00 for 50 lbs is cheap. If you dont mind real looking brown sand go with the pool filter stuff I paid 8.00 for 50 lbs of that.

 

[MarkK]

I personally have only used gravel in my tanks. Ive never used sand before. I would like to get the opinion of some other keepers.
1. Does sand cause more damage to your impellers?
2. Does sand really help with nitrates and nitrites due to waste not getting down in it?
3. Do the cichlids enjoy digging in sand better?
4.Do you have problems with cloudyness after cleanings and water changes.

I keep Tanganyikans, and while they seem to adapt to whatever substrate I use, my impression with all the digging they do is that they like sand better. With sand their digging is more precise.

I do find that I can not clean the sand the same way I clean gravel because it does make a mess, but I also find that because of the way sand is packed a lot of the detritus just lays on top of the sand rather than being all through it as it is with gravel.

For what it is worth I have three tanks with gravel (crushed coral) and two with sand and am setting up two more tanks soon--plan to use sand on those.

 

[Azraphael]

Personally I have used crushed coral sand for years, it's great for buffering Yvette Ph and hardness, I use 1-3mm so it's heavy enough that during cleaning it doesn't get stirred up, I've never had a damaged Impaler from it and never had nitrate problems.

Best advice I can offer is before putting it in rinse the hell out of it and you won't get too much clouding, get some women's tights or net bags and put your existing gravel in and put it in with your new tank to seed the new substrate, just make sure every 3-4 weeks you give it a good mix/clean to release any trapped gases

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[dogofwar]

I vote for neither

Actually, I use a thin layer (few handfulls) of pool filter sand, which coarser than play sand. I've also used sand (purchased from a landscape store).

I can get into impellers but I find it easier to clean than gravel. No problems with cloudiness of water. I use PFS directly from the bag. It's really clean. Play sand is filthy.

Matt

 

[jonclark96]

+1 on pool filter sand. Any waste lays on top and can be easily removed with a little practice. It is heavy enough to sink and not get caught up in the water column and then into the filters. The only issues I've had with sand in impellers is in tanks where the filter intake was down low and a breeding pair dug a pit in front of the the intake and literally spit the sand into the intake. I've also never had an issue with cloudiness after waterchanges.

Do the fish "enjoy" it more? Hard to say. I still have a few tanks with gravel and don't notice more or less digging based on the substrate. All in all, I'd say that diggers are going to dig regardless of the substrate.

 

[dogofwar]

Haters gonna hate. Digger gonna dig.

 

[Azraphael]

My only benefit I get from the crushed coral is the buffering capacity against pfs, only aragonite can match it and that can cost a fortune crushed coral is much cheaper. It's all personal preference but I hated play sand, it's far too dirty and didn't think pfs looked natural

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[Avatar]

No real contest

1. Does sand cause more damage to your impellers?
2. Does sand really help with nitrates and nitrites due to waste not getting down in it?
3. Do the cichlids enjoy digging in sand better?
4.Do you have problems with cloudyness after cleanings and water changes.

No, almost certainly, yes, never. Unless there's a reason to pick/mix in gravel (species, aesthetics, etc.), sand is a generally superior option. That being said, use of pre-filters is recommended to preclude/minimize potential impeller wear (and for other reasons ). Play sand is very fine and at least 10% silt which requires significant pre-washing to remove (and care/technique even after when vacuuming). And while it's great for Corydoras, it should be banned as a play or children's product due to its ultra-fine and dusty nature when dry (silicosis is no joke).

One can if inclined collect perfectly good sand from any stream or shore and though use of variously sized screen mesh sift for any size one wishes. I find pool sand to be rather drab/unattractive and prefer agate sand that for some reason is not commercially available though there are plenty of streams out west just full of the stuff.

 

[Hawkman2000]

I changed 2 of my tanks over to construction sand, and love it. I rinsed all the dust out of it first so I wouldn't have to deal with clouding, and boiled it since it had been in a pile in my friends back yard for about 2 years.

I have seen PFS tanks (pool filter sand), and they look good as well. It just seems to me that PFS looks better under higher lighting levels. It also lacks diversity in grain size, texture, and color. This depends on the look YOU are going for of course.

Over time, the construction sand in my tanks settled so that the fine stuff is on the bottom, and the larger stuff is on top (more like crushed gravel). I stir it up every once in a while, but it always looks good to me.

Another nice thing about sand is that when cichlids dig in it, it does stack up like a pile of bricks, like gravel can. My JDs stacked gravel in a corner once. Looked like a piece of greek engineering. Was about 10 inches high, and only 4 inches wide at the base. Not planning on using gravel anytime soon.

The pree filter Avatar suggested works verry well. Just cut a deep X in a peice of AC foam and shuve it on the intake.

Just pay in mind that some forms of sand/crushed matirial will alter your Ph (African cichlid sand, crushed coral). Should not be used with fish that require a more Ph nuetral enviroment.

 

[chris_todd]

+1 on PFS. I have it in my two cichlid tanks.


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[bschuhart]

PDFs in my tanks, like it much better than gravel. So all my tanks don't look the same I mix in a little black 3M quartz sand, it gives it a slat and pepper look kind of grey

 

[Malawimania]

I prefer sand because it's a more natural look. Very recently I had a nightmare in my 120 gallon tank with sand. The sand was being sucked into my FX5 because I could not raise the intake tub, it was PVC cemented to the bottom of the tank(It's drilled). The FX5 has an impeller at the bottom of the filter so the sand would constanly get stuck in the impeller. Had I used a Rena XP4 for filtration I would not have had this problem because the impeller is not at the bottom of the filter. I had to switch to a crused coral because no matter what I did sand would get into the FX5 and become quite loud. The fish seem to like the crushed coral since switching. I have pool filter sand in my 220 gallon and like that the best!

 

[Avatar]

Fishmares

Haven't had any of those yet that I recall - a little hard to tell in your post where your dream leaves off and reality takes over but I trust all is well.

 

[rich_one]

Very hard to find these days, but I'm a black 3m quartz guy. That said, I have two tanks that use pfs, largely due to how hard its been getting the quartz lately.

-Rich

 

[Hannibal]

I also use PFS in my tank and will use it on future tanks I set up. Its cheap and the fish seem to love it as they seem to enjoy sifting through it. I did mix in a 10 gallon bag of crushed coral with mine to help with the PH.