Cichlid - Sandy Bottoms

[shuu36]

In my new 75gal. Tank I am planning on using sand.........Any suggestions are welcomed......I use plant and ocean rocks for decor........nitrates aborbed by hornwarts and anacharis, I have hp filter system.....my tank now is great and so have been any other tanks I owned, however I never used sand..............

 

[mfdrookie516]

I would stick with South American cichlids like angels, rams, apistos, discus.... Most central american, new world, and african cichlids will devour plants.

 

[shuu36]

I'm fine with that....I put plants in so they have plenty of vegetation....I just need to know about sand bottom tanks and filteration for the most part.....my fiance likes angelfish..thank you!

 

[mfdrookie516]

My favorite sand is pool filter sand.. the same stuff they use in swimming pool filters. You can see that I have it in all three of my planted tanks (links in signature) and I also had it in my african cichlid tank. For filtration, canisters are best IMO for tanks bigger than 55g. While a couple aquaclear 110's would be sufficient, a fluval 405, rena xp3, or some model Eheim would be great.

 

[shuu36]

I agree with that the better the filteration the more productive clarity in the environment.......is that silica sand?

 

[mfdrookie516]

yes it is

 

[shuu36]

Cool beans....I always thought sand would be messy, untill I started looking around at aquariums with sandy bottoms and notice its pretty clean just wasn't sure how to clean them tho...having beauty doesn't come cheap

 

[HUKIT]

Pool filter sand is around $7 for a 50lbs. bag , so the only thing cheaper would be play sand.

 

[mfdrookie516]

or, if you're lucky like me and have a Meijer, you can get it for $1.99 for a 50lb bag... I don't think you can get any cheaper than that.

 

[shuu36]

No meijer here......all Walmart now. What abbout that sand they sell at pet shops for cichlids....21$ a bag? I mean don't get me wrong, but has anyone used it?

 

[HUKIT]

I do, I use Caribeas Tahitian Moon black sand in 90% of my tanks. It's nice since there is no rising and the balck really brings out the color of the fish.

 

[mfdrookie516]

That's fine for africans, but sounds like you're going to stick with south american, right? If you go with african, then yeah, that's fine.

 

[shuu36]

I do African Cichlids, and I like the black sand sounds like the fish will glow!! Thank you for some ideas!