# Advice on sand and geophagus



## Jesseschu (Mar 16, 2011)

Hi there. Thanks in advance for your help.
I have 8 very young geos in a 55 gallon with sand. I love their behaviors, sifting sand all day, but it clearly makes it difficult to maintain good water chemistry. I am committed to success with these fish and want to use this time to perfect my water maintenepance technique before I move them to a larger, more elaborately aqua scalped tank.

Any tricks on maintaining good water chemistry for the geos and their sand Sifting behaviors.

filtration: a power head & sponge for current across the top, a canister filter at 700 gph and 2 HOB's at 300 gph each.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

My question is how does them shifting sand effects your water chemistry


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

Not quite sure I understand what you are asking. Sand sifting does not affect water chemistry much at all. If anything, it would improve it as it aerates the lower levels of sand exposing the nitrifying bacteria to more oxygen containing water.

Now it does affect the tank aesthetically as they will bury decorations and the landscaping with their sifting and the fine particles of sand can get sucked into a filter which can cause problems with the operation of the filter.

Andy


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## Jesseschu (Mar 16, 2011)

Your statement makes sense to me on a certain level, but seeing it in action, it seems like their waters tend to get dirty much faster and I have had to move other more sensitive fish out their tank because of the constant stirring of the sand. Aesthetically I am not worried. I have also read about the challenges with nitrate spikes from their sandsifting behaviors.

Anyone?


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## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

If that's the case it means you're not cleaning your tank properly


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## bbortko (Nov 20, 2011)

The only things that will lead to high nitrates are over stocking, over feeding, poor maintenance or nitrates in your tap water.


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

Water getting dirty is due to particulate material becoming suspended instead of settling into the substrate. This does not have anything to do with water chemistry. The best thing to do is to vacuum the detritus off the surface when it collects using a gravel siphon held about a quarter inch above the surface of the sand so it sucks in the detritus and not the sand.

Aerating the substrate will disturb the sand so that anaerobic bacteria that could be breaking down nitrate into insoluble nitrogen gas will not form. So this could have a slight effect on increasing nitrates but the effect is minimal. It is much better to have the sand aerobic so that anoxic conditions (where sulfate reducing bacteria form and begin forming toxic hydrogen sulfide) do not occur.

Andy


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## Bamboo (Jan 12, 2011)

Which species of Geophagus ? I wouldn't make it any harder than it is. I use about an inch of PFS in my Geophagus tanks. Between the fish sifting thru the sand and regular water changes/maintence , you're water chemistry and quality should be fine. Just keep the sand dept small , one inch dept or less.


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## Jesseschu (Mar 16, 2011)

Thank you all for the advice. I appreciate the input.


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## CrypticLifeStyle (Dec 14, 2009)

Pool filter sand has worked great in my Geo tank for the last few years


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## Jesseschu (Mar 16, 2011)

Thanks for the reply. I have taken all of the advice above and tried to taylor it to my situation. I am doing more frequent water changes and so far *** (that's me knocking on wood ), so good.


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## CrypticLifeStyle (Dec 14, 2009)

What are you water parameters anyways? Is there levels being indicated that there is a issue? Seeing what kind of filtration you have going on i would say your more then covered in that dept. Is this a heavily stocked tank or? If your using carbon inserts that go with most HOB's you can always stop using them, and Hot rod your HOB's with foam and ceramic rings, and just use the plastic section off a filter cartridge almost forever to keep it all in. What quantity of water changes are you doing weekly anyways may i ask.


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