# need advice.... sand for substrate



## mutnjeff (Jul 29, 2008)

I am finally getting my 125gal set up! I'm so excited! but, I'm not sure what sand to use or how much, I'm using cichlid gravel in my 75gal. I want a tan colored sand, not black, but beyond that I don't know what I want, any advice? also, how do you go about rinsing it, especially in the winter months when there's snow outside??? thanks in advance!

Michele


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## football mom (Feb 19, 2006)

Theirs lots of different opinions on what kind to use.
Cheap, but more work rinsing it out is pool filter sand, coarse sand-blasting sand, play sand, and paver leveling sand. I have used all but pool filter sand, and I like the paver leveling sand the best so far, it looks the most natural IMO, as it has different sizes/shades of grains in it. You will have to wash it quite a bit to get all the dust and really fine particles out, though.
Here is a thread with pictures of different kinds of sand.
Hope this helps.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... highlight=


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

i just used pool filter sand from home depot. . . AND I LOVE IT. . only had to wash about 20 minutes, was almost completely clay and dust free... also is really uniform in size and heavy, so no worries about eating your impeller up if you have an hob filter.. easy easy easy


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## cevvin (May 2, 2008)

Just wash the sand in your bathtub. Fill a bucket with sand about 1/4 way or a bit more, then just run water til it clears. Continue stirring the sand in the bucket until the water runs clear (really clear otherwise your tank will cloud).


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## Curator (Feb 18, 2009)

I just use beach sand... *waits for the stones* whaaaaat, I boil it first to make sure theres no salt in it,lol...plus there are a few beaches around where I live with volcanic sand that is pretty black ,more like a really dark grey, but black enough for me when it happens to be free,lol... then there are areas where tons of shells wash up and break on the rocks, so the sand is really really white (and made mostly of shell) so good for its buffering capacity, not good if you dont want high ph...

oh, almost forgot, river sand works too! still should probably boil it though to make sure theres no nasty parasites hiding in it...


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## mutnjeff (Jul 29, 2008)

cevvin said:


> Just wash the sand in your bathtub. Fill a bucket with sand about 1/4 way or a bit more, then just run water til it clears. Continue stirring the sand in the bucket until the water runs clear (really clear otherwise your tank will cloud).


won't this clog the drain? just curious, my husband will kill me if I clog things up! lol

Michele


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## Curator (Feb 18, 2009)

er. i think cevvin meant to keep the sand inside of the 5 gallon bucket, but to run the water through it in your bathtub, mixing up the sand as the water is constantly replenished... to get all the **** out, it shouldnt clog up anything as long as no sand gets out of your bucket, and theres no large amount of plant matter in it...


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## Chris Lomax (Feb 8, 2004)

I have done the 5 gal. bucket thing with pool filter sand. Got it from Home Depot as silica sand for a about 5 dollars for 50 lb. Washed it really good, and added it in the tank with the fish still in. Stayed cloudy for about 4-5 hours, covered up the filter intakes with nylon stocking rubber banded around the filter intakes.

Worked fine, and I really got the tank clean in the process of removing the gravel I had in there previously. I have raised the intakes of my Emperor 400's a few inches to keep the sand from getting sucked into the impellers.

Much easier to keep clean than gravel and I really like the look.


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## ademb (Nov 19, 2008)

did u have any trouble with algae and/or ammonia, nitrite levels after u changed from gravel to sand? Im just curious as to how much benificial bacteria would be lost in taking out the gravel.

Also any tips on doing the swap over with the fish still in the tank? Im looking at doing it this week whilst i have time off is al..


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## zinn250 (Feb 16, 2009)

I used Pool Filter Sand too...it's so much cheaper than the cichlid sand stuff. I think I paid $8.00 for a 50 lb bag from a pool dealer. It cleaned up so easily!!! I just used my garden hose and a pillowcase - dumped some sand in a pillowcase and hosed it off! Super simple. I don't have water in the tank yet so I can't comment on the "sucking sand up the filter" thing but everything I've researched and read has said I shouldn't have problems. I plan on mixing it with a little crushed coral for the PH bufferer thing.

Good Luck!


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Dec 26, 2005)

ademb said:


> did u have any trouble with algae and/or ammonia, nitrite levels after u changed from gravel to sand? Im just curious as to how much benificial bacteria would be lost in taking out the gravel.
> 
> Also any tips on doing the swap over with the fish still in the tank? Im looking at doing it this week whilst i have time off is al..


first off, personally I prefer to remove the fish, removing gravel is mucky, (you'll not believe how much dirt is in there) and by not having the fish in the tank you can completely drain and rinse the tank out before setting it up again.

I use 100l (25g) buckets for this, and transfer the tank water to those, move the fish over, and then sort the tank out. (only swapped gravel for sand once, but moved fish around like that many times before)

as for the bacteria. UNLESS your running an under gravel filter, your not going to notice any loss of bacteria,

there will be minimal levels of bacteria on gravel, as they will not be on the top surface (they don't do well with light) and once you start going into the depths of the gravel the dissolved oxygen gets lower.. UGFs got round that by drawing the water through the gravel, and by doing so they made sure that all layers of the gravel were well oxygenated

with the use of internal and external filters, the levels of Nitrifying (looks like thats a made up word) bacteria will be highly concentrated in the filter media, and found in very low levels on dark oxygenated places in the tank.

so dont worry about it


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## ademb (Nov 19, 2008)

thanks mate, good to know. I did the swap before i had a chance to read your reply but yeah i ended up moving the fish out of the tank and i was amazed how much **** did come out of the gravel! You think that it gets cleaned out with regular gravel vacs but it really was dirty dirty stuff!

Tank looks awesome now and it was certainly worth the 2 hours total work to do. My fish are loving the digging haha


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