Silver sand - how to clean?

[garfy]

At present I only have rocks in my tank,but I've just bought some silver sand.Whats the best way to clean the sand before I put it in my tank?

 

[hippy guy]

Lol well as long as its aquarium safe (silver makes it seem sketchy, but id love to see a pic, as I njust did a black sand bottom (black substrate has been known to decrease stress in fish)
Well what I did was filled the sand in a big bucket, and fillter up with water, stir, let settle a bit, pour out water, and repeat.
Or you could fill sand in a pillow case (only heard of this) or even a sock... good luck with sand, its a bit more work, but so much easier to clean..
Fyi put a piece of pantyhose around your filter intake, otherwise a tiny piece of sand could float in and stop your filter... just broke a filtter drom this

 

[HUKIT]

I've never heard of silver sand before, could you post picture of the bag? I would just be concerned about anything that could be harmful.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I think it's a brand... Silver Sand Fine Sand Substrat For Tropical Aquariums (doesn't seem like it's something readily available in the US... are you over in the UK or something?)


Everything google says about it indicates that it is very fine... which means it would be a pain to clean, both before putting in, and during weekly pwc's.

 

[HUKIT]

I was thinking of some industrial type stuff.

 

[hippy guy]

Yeah, when I first read, I was thinking like, metal sand or somthing, but then I realized they also make neon purple sand, so why not silver...
And idk about fine grain, mine is like, sugar, and it won't even get kicked up in my wc, so that makes cleaning suoer convienent, cause I can almost touch the sand before it gets sucked up, but thee poo stands no chance..

 

[hippy guy]

Yeah I forget the grain size.. but you want somthing that looks a lot like grain sugar, maybe a bit smaller (mised just about that size) won't get stirred up or nothn

 

[WendiDell]

Please post a few pics. if you can, of both the sand and the bag. I'd love to find something like that for both of my larger tanks. Knowing the name would make it easier to find.

 

[hippy guy]

Gime a min to get off my phone, phone image uploads aren't workn for me

 

[hippy guy]

Stoney river aquarium sand.
It is a polymer coated silica, it is supposedly veryvery safe for fish, and worked wondefully for my tank. When I cleaned the sand, nothing came off (nothn to cloud the water) and within 5 min, I have the gravel out, new sand in, and the fish in as well

 

[BillD]

the photo of the silver sand looks very much like common concrete sand which can be purchased very cheaply.

 

[OsciTheOscar]

So this is gonna be a stupid question, and im sure its been discussed already a million times before but sand substrate is better than rock substrate??? And if so whats the best way to switch from rocks/pebbles to sand, or is crushed coral best. I have a african cichlid tank and a south american tank, i know the coral would change the ph and all but whts the best for wht and what would make my fish more comfortable/at home?

 

[hippy guy]

Id do sand, jusr drain your tank, take gravel out, put in clean sand, wait for it to settle (can take days sometimes I've heard, but I used stoney river premium aquarium sand, and it didn't cloud up at all) once its all settles, fish go in. To clean, just siphone an inch or so above the sand, and the poop flies up (it won't sink down as there aren't as many crevices with sand, since its a fine grain) imo its easier to clean, and it looks amazing, and really adds to that natural feel

 

[OsciTheOscar]

Thts all good and fine but i have fish in there as we speak... Cant just drain the water out...

 

[hippy guy]

Put them in a bucket with ur filter and deco, that's what I did, get a biig bucket put your heater in there if you have too

 

[OsciTheOscar]

Hukit whatya think about this? I have a big blood parrot a small one a medium oscar and a medium pleco... I just hate the idea of stressing them out?

 

[HUKIT]

Hukit whatya think about this? I have a big blood parrot a small one a medium oscar and a medium pleco... I just hate the idea of stressing them out?

I use large Rubbermaid containers when changing substrates. If you pre-rinse the sand ahead of time and make sure it's room temperature ahead of time, the actual switch won't take more than a hour. Fish won't be that stessed for very long, except your oscar their big babies.

 

[WendiDell]

Stoney river aquarium sand.
It is a polymer coated silica, it is supposedly veryvery safe for fish, and worked wondefully for my tank. When I cleaned the sand, nothing came off (nothn to cloud the water) and within 5 min, I have the gravel out, new sand in, and the fish in as well

Thank you, I'll look for it. If I can't find it I'll see if my not so LFS can get it.

 

[hippy guy]

Yeah my lfs (incredipets) has the stuff. Its polymer coated silica, so it won't raise your ph like silica, and all the reading I've done on it seems to say its just fine for a tank. As I've said I have had zero problems with this sand

 

[OsciTheOscar]

Hukit could you walk me through themwhole process... Not firmiliar with all this