Hi All

[jdesormeaux006]

I've been in the hobby for about a year now and I'm looking forward to
upgrading to a 77/gal which I'm in the process of acquiring.

So I've been doing some planning and I have it almost all figured out
except the bloody substrate....

Here's my dilemma......... I love the look of sand for a substrate and
since I won't be using a UGF it should not be to much of a problem......I
think?

My question is, what are the advantages and disadvantages of sand and
how do you clean it.

As usual all advice is greatly appreciated

Thanks in Advance

[Kay]

jdesormeaux006 wrote:
> I've been in the hobby for about a year now and I'm looking forward to
> upgrading to a 77/gal which I'm in the process of acquiring.
>
> So I've been doing some planning and I have it almost all figured out
> except the bloody substrate....
>
> Here's my dilemma......... I love the look of sand for a substrate and
> since I won't be using a UGF it should not be to much of a problem......I
> think?
>
> My question is, what are the advantages and disadvantages of sand and
> how do you clean it.
>
> As usual all advice is greatly appreciated
>
> Thanks in Advance
>
>

I have sand, and use a python type to vaccum it like gravel. I have had
sand for a year now with luive plants and so far no problem. I started
with playsand but that caused brown algae, so I added Seachem's caltrate
grey and the algae disappeared.

Kay

[NetMax]

"jdesormeaux006" > wrote in message
able.rogers.com...
> I've been in the hobby for about a year now and I'm looking forward
to
> upgrading to a 77/gal which I'm in the process of acquiring.
>
> So I've been doing some planning and I have it almost all figured
out
> except the bloody substrate....
>
> Here's my dilemma......... I love the look of sand for a substrate
and
> since I won't be using a UGF it should not be to much of a
problem......I
> think?
>
> My question is, what are the advantages and disadvantages of sand
and
> how do you clean it.
>
> As usual all advice is greatly appreciated
>
> Thanks in Advance

Advantages: Looks neat, plants grow well in it, easy to vacuum off the
surface, enjoyed by many types of fish (loaches, corys etc).

Disadvantages: Can damage filter impellers and clog filter media, can
harbour anaerobic bacteria which can cause problems, it's self-levelling
so sloping is more difficult, can become very compacted, shows detritus
quickly.

If you can work around the disadvantages, by keeping your filter intakes
high, don't have excavating cichlids, and use MTS to keep it churned up
(to not go anaerobic), then it's an interesting medium to work with.
It's fun to watch certain loaches plow in and under (how to they know
which way is up?), and Corys grow really long barbels. Avoid playsand as
it compacts too much. Get a coarse sand or a very fine gravel. This has
more of the advantages of both sand and gravel.

NetMax

[JTech]

> I've been in the hobby for about a year now and I'm looking forward to
> upgrading to a 77/gal which I'm in the process of acquiring.
>
> So I've been doing some planning and I have it almost all figured out
> except the bloody substrate....
>
> Here's my dilemma......... I love the look of sand for a substrate and
> since I won't be using a UGF it should not be to much of a problem......I
> think?
>
> My question is, what are the advantages and disadvantages of sand and
> how do you clean it.
>
> As usual all advice is greatly appreciated
>
> Thanks in Advance
>
>
Go to a pool store and get the filter sand. cheap and all sized so it wont
compact down. clean with normal gravel vac every other day or so ( for fish
load conditions ) and it will be fine.
Rinse well before adding to your tank, if your tank has water already - use
the tube from your gravel vac to guide the sand in place. Less of the dirty
water of sand mixing in the water.
Good luck and be sure to have fun!