Sand with Oscars and others

[Fishman24]

What's going on guys. I am new here so this is my first post. This site is great and I look forward to stopping by more often. Anyway I have a question regarding using sand in a freshwater tank. I currently have gravel in a 90 gallon tank with oscars, bengas, maylandi, parrots and electric blue. Is it ok to use sand instead of gravel. I have been thinking of changing and I think I have sold myself on the idea however I have read that there may be concerns about the calcium raising the PH. Does anyone have any experience with this or is this a bad idea. I was going to use Southdown sand from Home Depot. I really want to switch to sand but I don't want to create problems. Thanks

 

[Jawz]

ive have sand for 6 months now and i went through cichlids to livebearers and i dint have any problems at all. Plus it looks really good. If u do a search on sand theres plenty of other topics like urs with useful info. PS southdown is really good sand to use

 

[Antwan]

I'm wondering the same thing. Do you clean it just like regular gravel? With a gravel vacuum? And what procedure would you have to go through to get it ready for the tank? "Southdown", right?

 

[Jawz]

hmm no u dont clean it the same u hover above the and all the particles lift up cuz it cant seep into the sand like it does on gravel. It jsut stays on the top. Preparin it is kinda rough cuz ur always gonna get a really cloudy tank when u put it in. SOme people pour it into a bucket with a garden hose and run the hose until all the small sand particles stop commin out. u put like low to medium flow and that will help get rid of the particles that will tend to float easily.

 

[Antwan]

So you pour the sand inna bucket and overflow the bucket with the hose, and then turn it lower to get rid of the floating sands? That makes sense. Do ya'lls have a Home Depot in Canada by chance?

 

[Jawz]

yeh i do, i dint get SOuthdown cuz it wasnt available just got a nice lookin silica sand

 

[Fishman24]

Thanks, I got the Southdown sand and I have been washing it pretty good. It is still cloudy so I will spend a little time each night washing it until it isn't cloudy.

Now the hard part. Has anyone ever changed from gravel to sand while the tank is up and running. I don't have another tank to put the fish in so I am going to have to change it with the fish in there. Something tells me this isn't going to be fun.

Any suggestions on this