Planted and sand

[Zer0]

If you have a planted tank, wont it get more dirty and wont your filter have to work twice as much filtering out by-product of the plants?

Also, currently i have black Tahiti moon sand, but sometime in the future i really want to change it to a nice regular clean looking sand. How would i go about getting my current sand out?

Another thing.. do cichlids live in tropic freshwater? or are they brackish water fish...

 

[thominil]

Nope, plants actually help the filter. Cichlids are freshwater.

 

[mgamer20o0]

no not really. plants use the dirt up and can help stop mini cycles. they use stuff like ammonia for ferts.

take everying out of the tank. remove the water and use a cup or something to scoop it out. you might want to look into pool filter sand.

cichlids are freshwater

 

[Zer0]

****, that seems like a junkload of work to take the sand out. But oh well. Thanks for the info guys.

 

[mgamer20o0]

its not that hard. if you want a new look there no other way to do it.

 

[Zer0]

Yeah i figured that. I only had one bag of the black sand.. which was about a half inch deep.. so maybe i could just get another large bag of the regular clean sand i wanted and put it over the black sand. Would it be alright to do that?

 

[mgamer20o0]

you can but it will mix up. as you vac or with plants planting and pulling out it will be mixed up. if thats the effect you want then go for it. really if you are adding more sand you will have to take the fish and everything out anyways..... taking the sand out isnt too much work. trust me i done it many tanks from 10-120 gallons.

 

[Zer0]

Yeah, luckily for me.. i havent put any fish in there and im not gonna be using real plants. So im just gonna empty the tank out and take the black sand out and just restart over again. If my tank went through the cycle already will taking all the water out effect the cycle?

 

[mgamer20o0]

no. the bacteria is on the filter and gravel on the surface. if you dont have anything in there just take the water out and put it out back and hose it out. put the new stuff in filter back on and keep cycling.

 

[Zer0]

Alright thanks for the info. Its a 55 gallon so its gonna take me a while lol. Maybe i can just run a hose in there and ciphon it out into my bathtub. lol.

 

[mgamer20o0]

just use a drink cup to scoop it out.