MIxing sand and gravel?

[actiondave13]

I am upgrading one of my 10 ga. tanks to a 30...which currently has a purple chiclid, mickey mouse platy, and a green tiger barb. I am adding 3 moretiger barbs and my platy had babies so soon 3 or 4 more of them will be going in the tank with mom...( dad jumped out of the tank yesterday ...and I also want to add a female chiclid and possabably a discus. Would the discus be too much for this 30 gallon? I'm thinking of having the tank.gravel out of the 10 gal and adding sand and driftwood...would this be a good mix of substrate? how hard to clean sand? Thanks for your input?

 

[Newman]

Discus will be too much for a 30 gal. they need groups of 5 or so to lessen agression and a very big 100+ gal tank.

sand and gravel mix is cool. sand isnt that hard to clean, just swich the gravel vac ABOVE the sand to stir up debris and vaccuum it up as it floats upward...just dont push the gravel vac into the sand lol.

 

[actiondave13]

Thanks

Thanks, that what I figured

 

[lludu]

Absoluetly

Hi there! Newman is absolutely correct, just swish the gravel vac above the sand itself to kick up the debris or just put your hand down there and go in a circle motion and get the crap out with a net.

You can see my setup in the RateMyTank Section or by Clicking Below:

Lludu's 20 Gallon Setup

 

[tropicalcrazy]

yeah discus need a 100+ gallon because they must school together. i dont know a lot about them though. i do know they require to school and their tank perimeters ive read have to be perfect all the time and water levels have to stay stable otherwise you could end up losing a lot of money. there is a sticky thread on discus on this site. for the most part they are a little harder of a fish to take care of from what ive read. maybe someone with experience can give you more info if you want one, just know you will definitely need a lot bigger of a tank

 

[Kanoria]

I myself would find mixing gravel and sand to be a pain in the rear to clean.
I've had gravel and now currently have a sand tank. Both together would be more trouble than its worth as far as cleaning goes.

I love having just sand and a few large rocks for hiding places. Just be sure to sift the sand with your hands to avoid a nasty and deadly gas build up. Smells like rotten eggs too.

I've tried using my battery operated gravel vac and I'd just stick with gravity operated gravel vacs.


For cichlids crushed coral or sand is usually recommended.. if you're going to get more cichlids I would remove the barbs and platies..

While dicus are gorgeous and fun to have.. they're expensive and require intermediate to expert care. Otherwise you're wasting your time and money.


Minimum recommend male to female ratio for Platy is 1:2 (M:F). You will less likely to experience problem if you get even more females.

At least 5 x Tiger Barb are recommended in a group.

Recommended temperature range: 75.2 - 77 F.
Recommended pH range: 6 - 7.8.
Recommended hardness range: 5 - 15 dH.

Want to try more options?
www.aqadvisor.com

 

[actiondave13]

Thanks Kanoria I am going to wait on the discus..I have a 60 gal that I will be setting up in the future that maybe will house a few discus. The purple chiclids I have are semi-aggresive and seem to enjoy running the barbs and platies away from their cave but then will swim and hang out with them in open water...by far they r my favorite to watch

 

[Kanoria]

I had finally gotten my fiance into fish..
I had a 30 gallon tank with platies and barbs at the time and wanted to upgrade to 75g. While I was looking around on Craigslist for one he happened to find a neat 55g with filter, and etc.

He liked the killifish since they were so colorful... but he ended up buying 2 cichlids from petco.

One yellow lab and electric blue. For his birthday I bought him 8 more cichlids (about the same size as his current couple) and they were a hit!

We had them for about a year or so, before a major heater malfunction.. caused the water to reach 100+ F. We were on vacation and his mother didn't notice in time.

VERY colorful and fun to watch. Put some zebra danios in there every now and then for chaser fish.

I always liked big fish lol.

Here is what he had..
55 gallon
-1 Kenyi
-2 Yellow labs
-1 Metriaclima Estherae OB
-1 Albino Zebra?
-1 Pseudotropheus Socolofi
-1 Pseudotropheus Acei
-1 Elongatus Ornatus
-2 Spotted Pictus Catfish
-1 Gold Chinese Algae eater (Worst fish ever.. it doesn't do its job)

Here's a picture of it when it was almost brand new. Cichlids were just babies

Mtbsinger85's Freshwater Tank - Photo 1 - Full Version - Rate My Fish Tank

 

[scott@bolton_uk]

Adding lava to top of sand.

Hi guys,
reading this topic has really enlightened me.. but can anyone tell me if its ok to add lava rock to the top of the sand(silver sand) in my tank or will it just start to work its way under the sand? oh its a 200ltr tank with roughly around 1-2.5cm of sand on the bottom with small cobbles(5-10cm) on one side and a large piece of bogwood in the midlle, and a fluvel 203 cannister filter. the problem is i have 2 plecks wich constantly stir up the sand etc resulting in floating particals which reduce the clarity of the water. or would it be easier to siphon as much of the sand out as possible? any tips anyone?

cheers scott.

 

[bassbonediva]

Hi! I have pea gravel and sand in my 55gal and it's really cool! I have the pea gravel on the sides and the sand in the middle, so it looks kind of like a river. Here's a few pics of what it looks like (the first two pics are kind of yellowish because of the tannins from that big piece of driftwood on the left...it was too odd of a shape to soak in any of the buckets I had).

It's actually really easy to clean the sand. The hardest part is getting between all the driftwood and big rocks and such.

 

[lauraf]

Wow, Paige, that's really cool! I might redo my tank setup, and am gathering different ideas. I'm going to keep this in mind.
Do you use a gravel filter for your sand, or just a regular siphon?

 

[littletankbigworld]

You guys have the most awesome tanks! I hope some day mine will look as good as yours. Nice idea to mix sand and pea gravel. I might have to try that sometime with a future 10 gallon.

I use a regular siphon to clean sand, but it has to be round. I have a large oval siphon and ovals don't stir up the organic matter well enough because it's hard to swish an oval around in circles.

 

[Cammie]

Kanoria, that kitten video is soooooooo cute! x

 

[michaelharris]

Hi guys,

Wow......that's cool.....!


Thanks

Regards
Michael Harris