sandy bottom

[thanatos0203]

do you think my fish might like it better with a sandy bottom? if thats the case, and i end up lowering my fish count to maybe three fish, do you think a teacup stingray is a good idea or bad, and if i were to do a sandy bottom, would i have to completely restart my fish tank because the old gravel is gone?

i mean the stingray is just a thought ive had

 

[unwritten law]

probably no on the sting ray....they need a lot more surface area.

 

[jo3olous]

Quoted this from aquaticcommunity.com since i know little abotu stingrays:

"Ive heard that a 75g is the minimum. They like to bury themselves, meaning they like surface area at the bottom. A 55g long WOULD, and COULD work, but a 55g's like puting a oscar in a 33g, it can work but is not best.

If you are able to get a long tank vs. a regular or tall tank, thats best "

 

[thanatos0203]

alright, well it was just a thought, but tell me about the sandy bottom, would i completely have to restart with my tank if i did it?

 

[jo3olous]

alright, well it was just a thought, but tell me about the sandy bottom, would i completely have to restart with my tank if i did it?

it would be a challenge considering you have to remove all the subtrate, then get the sand in the tank. I highly doubt dumping the sand right in will work, it will just float around in the water forever, and I don't know if that's good for a fish.

Ideally you would remove everything from the tank, empty it out, add the new subtrate then fill it with water again, but care to not do it wrecklessly or sand will start flying everywhere.

You won't lose most of your bacteria, it will be in the filter media.

 

[thanatos0203]

ok, what if i took out 75% of the water?
i mean that thing takes about two hours to remove the water and two hours to fill it

 

[unwritten law]

You have to fill it VERY slow because it will be very cloudy... It took over a week for mine to clear up when I started my tank.

 

[Whiskers]

if you wish to do sand i would suggest this: 1st get some silica sand (its called handy sand at menards if you have one in your state) which is what i use. it doesn't compact and stays loose so fish can push it around, my fish love it.

2nd get 5gal bucket and fill it half full with water and pour the sand into the water a little at a time so the floaties in the sand go to the top. skim that off and stir the sand to get any extra floaties out of it. take that sand and dump it into another clean bucket, then repeat the process. once you get plenty of sand to do some of your tank drain about 50% of the water and remove gravel from tank. i would suggest to use a scooper to put sand in tank and don't just dump it in cause it will go every where. when you pour sand in turn filter(s) off so it doesn't suck up sand. keep repeating process till you have a few inches across bottom of tank.

when you fill tank up with water try not to disturb sand in bottom of tank cause again it will stir it up alot and possible get into filter sys. once sand settles the fish won't stir it up so bad that it will kill your filtration sys.

one down fall to sand is you see the poo on top of the sand but i like it since i can see how dirty it is and where the poo is to get it when cleaning. there is probly more i could say but that is the basic, how to do it.

 

[iexiak]

can you vacuum sand? i thought sand would look really cool, but it seems like it carries more problems than gravel does...

 

[homebunnyj]

You can vacuum it.

I drained my water to the level of the substrate, removed the gravel, had previously washed the sand, (more on that in a moment), added it to the tank, arranged my rocks and plants, then, before filling the tank, I set a dinner plate on the bottom. I directed the water onto the plate and adjusted the flow so that it flowed onto the plate and off the edges instead of blasting in all directions. Once the water level came up over the plate I turned the water back up some, making sure it wasn't strong enough to stir up the sand. Once the tank was full I removed the plate.

If your sand is well washed and you use this or a similar method to avoid stirring up the sand, it should settle and clear in a day or so.

About washing the sand: Play sand is very dusty/dirty. You have to put some in a bucket, add water, stir it up really well, drain off the water, fill it up again, stir it up, drain, repeat, repeat, repeat...... It's a lot of trouble. But, if you don't thoroughly rinse every bucketful of sand, you'll be doing water change after water change to get all the dirt off it after you've put it in your tank.

My 55 and my 29 are both play-sand bottomed. I love them, but I thought I was never gonna be done washing that sand. Was it worth it? To me, yes. I couldn't afford aquarium sand in sufficient quantities for what I wanted; play sand is -- pardon the expression -- dirt cheap. I did have time to perform the labor necessary to prepare the sand.

I love my sand. Loaches love burrowing in it. I think it's easier to set plants into. It looks natural. My fish look good against it. It doesn't cause any problems at all that I can think of.

ETA: You might have a mini-cycle but it shouldn't last long.

 

[Whiskers]

when vacuuming the sand i found it works best to use small dia tube. something about the size of a 1/4" cpvc tube works good. just move the tube over the fish waste trying not to pick up the sand.

homebunny uses play sand i use 100% silica sand (cost me $3 for 50lb bag) and i've heard, if you can find it, you can use pool sand. i've heard you can use a contractors fine sand but never looked into it.

 

[thanatos0203]

alright well i went ahead and got some fishtank sand and the heater ive been needing im cleaning the sand now

 

[exhumed07]

I went from gravle to sand in my 10 gallon then back to gravel after I found out 10 gallon with active fish and sand did not mix. every time I did a change like that the tank went into a mini cycle. so switching can be a lil rough on the fish but tollerable. I personally prefer the look of sand but I don't think many fish tend to care.

as for the pool filter sand. better hope u don't have an hob filter. the pool sand is so fine it just flows in the water. I hate the stuff lol. and I used black natural sand.

 

[iexiak]

do cichlids like the sand? and can i get black sand? and how much sand would a 48x18 tank bottom require?

 

[Whiskers]

yes cichlids like the sand. i don't know about black sand but i think i've heard of it once. i would say start with 50lbs and go from there.

 

[thanatos0203]

should i be able to put the fish back in after i have finished, because the filter still has the good bacteria in it so does the plants and decorations?

 

[Whiskers]

i would just let the sand settle a little bit before you turn on the filters. once you feel safe to turn on filters then i would say its safe to put fish in.

 

[thanatos0203]

well when i filled it the sand barely got disrupted

 

[Mturner615]

Firstly, sand is a huge pain to maintain and it also gets pockets of ammonia and nitrate and all that wonderful stuff, so, unless you have tons of time, I wouldn't recommend it. Also, sand tends to ruin a lot of filter motors.

Secondly, freshwater sting rays require huge tanks of 150+ gallons, and I don't mean regular sized tanks either. I mean the tanks that are like giant squares that have tons of surface area and very little vertical space.

Also.. freshwater sting rays tend to be very finicky and don't tolerate a lot of tankmates. In addition to not tolerating a lot of tank mates, they can be very sensitive to water parameters.

 

[homebunnyj]

I disagree as to the sand, I have sand substrate in all my tanks. I love it. It isn't difficult to maintain, and as long as you don't have your filter intake too close to the substrate you won't really have filter problems. I had to raise the intake tube a bit in my goldfish tank because the big one tends to swim by and flip up some sand with his tail as he corners. So, I shortened the intake a bit. No big deal.

Sand can get pockets of toxic gases built up in it if it is never disturbed. You can either stir a small area with every water change, just kind of poke at it; or, you can get burrowing bottom dwellers such as -- surprise -- dojo loaches. Or, you can get some Malaysian trumpet snails and you'll never have to worry about stirring the sand again, they burrow through it constantly. However, loaches eat snails, so choose one or the other. (I don't know for sure if dojos do, but other types do. Some people keep loaches to keep their tank snail-free.)