Stupid Question time, so be gentle :)

[gfishguy56]

First of all, i'm a saltwater fish guy. However, I've kept many freshwater tanks as well, but the one thing i dislike about them is the gravel. Here's the stupid question part....Does a freshwater tank have to have a gravel bottom/substrate or can sand be used or any other more natural substrate be used? the gravel bottom look has never seemed natural to me, so is there anything better out there?

 

[cJw]

You could use either; there're many people here who use sand in their FW tanks; some FW fish even prefer it!

I remember seeing one user's tank, in which sand with a 'peppering' of small and medium rocks were used - I thought it looked very natural.

And that's, IMO, far from a stupid question, gfishguy.

 

[mentallylost]

I love the sand in my 80 gallon tank. It looks incredible. And the fish in there seem to love it too. You can always find atleast one of them digging a hole. As for natural, in my 10 gallon hospital tank, I used "play sand" from Lowes. It is natural brown fine sand used mainly for play ground sand boxes. Cheap stuff and looks great.

 

[SerLunchbox]

Here's the stupid question part....

Let me give you a quote from a Chef friend of mine "There is only one type of stupid question; that is the one that you don't ask!"

Sand can be used for FW tanks, just be sure to have something to aggitate the sand (for example, MTS)

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I have sand in 3 of my tanks, and gravel in 1. For future setups, I wouldn't ever go back to gravel. IME, sand is easier to maintain and looks nicer. I use pool filter sand in my tanks and it works great. It is heavier than sand that you get from the lfs and doesn't cloud as much. As a matter of fact, I just went from gravel to sand in my 10 gal and it didn't cloud at all. You will have to stir up the sand about once a week (to be on the safe side) so you don't have gas pockets, but that really isn't an issue. I have MTS in my 29 gal and only mix it up once a month. but that's more for kicking up the eels to make sure they are still alive. Depending on what you plan to keep, you may or may not be able to have MTS. I put 10 of them in my 150 and the Cichlids ate all of them. Now all we have is snail shells sitting on the sand. You can check my gallery for pics of sanded tanks.

 

[gfishguy56]

This is great news. I plan on setting up your basic Community fish tank, mainly tetras, with live plants. Would Play Sand from Home Depot/Lowes work fine, or should i use the saltwater aragonite stuff? If there are pros/cons for the sand, what are they? And my last question for now, could i use regular base rock for the decor mixed with slate rocks and such?

 

[Docker66]

I have a question regarding this matter as well. Is vaccuming the same with sand as it is with gravel? Or, is their a special "sand vac"? TIA

 

[joedarat]

I don't have sand, but I've read that you just wave the vac over the top of the sand to suck up debris/mulm .

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Do not use aragonite. Use either play sand or pool filter sand. I personally prefer pool filter sand. It can be bought from any pool supply store for about $10 for 50 lbs. Just make sure you clean it really well before putting it in the tank.

To do a gravel vac, you don't do it the same as gravel. Some people just wave the end of the vac above the sand to kick up waste. Then they suck it out. I push the gravel vac at an angle about 1/2 inch into the sand. It picks up some sand, but since the pool filter sand is heavier, if I wave the vac, it will fall back into the tank.

Pro- Waste sits on top of the sand, it doesn't build up in the gravel. It looks more natural. Fish love to play in it. Easy to maintain.

Con- May be cloudy at initial setup. It depends on how well you clean it. Depending on what type of sand you use, it can be pulled into the filter. Again, the heavier the sand, the less likely it will get pulled up.

 

[mentallylost]

I have not used pool filter sand, but it does look good. IMO it looks better than play sand (I have used play sand). The really light sands aren't that bad either. I use Aragamax Grand Bahama Sand in my 80 gallon tank. This is very fine sand with small shells mixed through. Although it was a serious pain in the rear end to initially clean. I don't aggitate it either. When I do my water changes, I scrape my vac over the top layer of sand to kick up debris. I figure that the amount of digging that my fish do, aggitates it enough.
On a side note... I never would have put gravel in my 125, but I left the decision up to my wife and she chose it. She regrets the decision now.

 

[RoK]

Is there a heavier sand that you can use in an aquarium than pool filter sand?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I'm not sure how heavy play sand is. The only sands I've used is pool filter sand and sand from the lfs. The sand from the lfs is VERY light.

 

[mentallylost]

Light sand works fine. Ya just got to make sure that the filter inlet is atleast 2" above the substrate. Turning them off when you do filter tank maintenance helps. But you should turn them off then anyway.