sand in my tank
- Thread starter mattmctyre
- Start date
of course. you can buy the more expensive sands at an LFS. you can usually buy in either black or white/tannish color.
a cheaper alternative would be playsand bought at a hardware store or home depot or something around there.
be sure to research what color sand you want (on places like youtube) to see if it would work with your tank.
a cheaper alternative would be playsand bought at a hardware store or home depot or something around there.
be sure to research what color sand you want (on places like youtube) to see if it would work with your tank.
plants can grow in sand, but i advise you supplement with root tabs. seachem is one example.
It will only cloud the water initially as with all substrate and will clear after a few days.
See if you can buy onyx sand if you like black or regular play sand from a store. try not to buy an argonite based sand or it will raise your pH. id say reef sand might be argonite based....
always remember to rinse it like 100x before putting it in the tank, and only use a layer around 1" thickness...
It will only cloud the water initially as with all substrate and will clear after a few days.
See if you can buy onyx sand if you like black or regular play sand from a store. try not to buy an argonite based sand or it will raise your pH. id say reef sand might be argonite based....
always remember to rinse it like 100x before putting it in the tank, and only use a layer around 1" thickness...
I just did this exact thing in my 75 gallon... I had some natural colored gravel and i switched it to black "Carib-Sea" Brand sand. A dozen LFS's and a few hours later my oscars were enjoying there new sand box.
My tips are... make sure all filters are off before transferring(only putting the sand in of course, not taking the gravel out). And if you have an extra tank, I would keep the fish in there during the process, taking half the water out of the tank and using it in the temp tank would be ideal, causing less of a mess during the switch. No matter how much you rinse, and you have to rinse quite a bit, you will still get clouding. But I assure you it goes away.
This will cause your tank to recycle in most cases, so being aware of this is also good. I use 2 Biowheel 350 HOB's so my recovery time was minimal due to the wheels having the proper level of nitrates.
Good luck on this, I am very pleased with my transition and I would like to say so are my fishes!
My tips are... make sure all filters are off before transferring(only putting the sand in of course, not taking the gravel out). And if you have an extra tank, I would keep the fish in there during the process, taking half the water out of the tank and using it in the temp tank would be ideal, causing less of a mess during the switch. No matter how much you rinse, and you have to rinse quite a bit, you will still get clouding. But I assure you it goes away.
This will cause your tank to recycle in most cases, so being aware of this is also good. I use 2 Biowheel 350 HOB's so my recovery time was minimal due to the wheels having the proper level of nitrates.
Good luck on this, I am very pleased with my transition and I would like to say so are my fishes!