pool filter sand? what the heck are u people talkin about?

[Fishyfanatic]

She'll probably spit them out when the tank lights are off and noone is around. That's when mine did it. She held those fry for who knows how long in the 150. I moved her to the 10 gal and first thing in the morning when I woke up (still dark in the house) I went into the kitchen and she had spit them all out.

 

[20 20]

Well, two are swimming free right now. Here's one of them:

She's still got more in her mouth, I'll check in the morning.

But, this is supposed to be a thread about pool filter sand!!!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Sorry for gettin off topic

 

[20 20]

Wasn't you, was me. And it was only a slight deviation, that last pic of mine shows a nice close up of the pool filter sand, eh?

Oh, and btw, she just spit 10 fry.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Congrats on the fry!

 

[mr funktastic]

wow u guys have really helped alot. sorry i havent responded for a while my internet was being stupid.u are right 20 20 that is a really good close up of the sand. i think i am going to buy some of it tomorrow. i will be taking a trip to my local pool store to check it out. can u buy less that 50 pounds of it? all the people have been saying that they bought 50 pounds none less. well i realy like the white colour it stands out alot. i have a black ghost knife right now that would look awsome against the white sand. by the way i have a question about cihclids. i have 2 german blue rams and i was wondering if they are mouth breeders as well i think i remember them not being but i thought i would ask anyway. i liked where the new topic was going by the way i love when people wonder off topic because they usually contain the best info and debates lol

 

[engine49]

It usually just comes in 50 pound bags. 50 pounds of sand wont go as far as you think it will however. I just went through 200 lbs of sand in a couple of my tanks.

 

[mr funktastic]

lol ouch thats alot of sand. i was only planning on using it on my 10 and 5 gallon tank and if i had enough i might switch over my 20 gallon as well. i have very shallow beds in my tanks as i dont like an abundance of gravel.

 

[20 20]

50 pound bags are the smallest my pool store sells, I don't know about other places. $8.00 for the bag, so if you don't use it all, you're not out a lot of money. Ask about the color before you buy it, though, as evidently some types are a darker tan. My pool store keeps it in a shed out back, so I couldn't see it before buying, so I asked about the color.

 

[greenmaji]

hey so.. wait whats wrong with silica?

Diadom algae.. Im pretty sure anyway..

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I've only seen pfs in 50 lb bags. I used 50 lbs in my 55 gal tank. The 150 used 120 lbs and has a nice deep sand bed. You could easily do your 5, 10, and possibly 20 with 50 lbs. You could definately do it if you don't like the look of deep sand beds.

 

[20 20]

Fishyfanatic, do you use either "under gravel jets", or eggcrate, or both, with your sand beds?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Neither. None of the fish ever dug in the sand too bad. But now the Africans are digging like CRAZY. They hit glass daily under this one little hut of rocks that we have in there. So everyday we are pushing the sand back into place. They are of breeding size so it is expected. When we move and set up the 150 again we may put eggcrat under there so they stop hitting glass. But there is already a deep enough sand bed in the tank. It's about 4 inches, 5 in some areas. We put so much in because they are great diggers. The sand gets mixed twice a week when we do water changes. We're trying to encourage breeding by keeping the Nitrates down. So far it's worked, two batches of fry.

I just recently heard of the under sand jets. But I've never actually seen them before. It may be a consideration when we move if I can find enough info about them and they are beneficial.

 

[20 20]

One way of constructing UGJ's:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ug_jets.php

Some people use 'real' nozzles instead of squeezing the PVC, just depends on what you want to do.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Thanks 20 20! I'll check out that link this afternoon. Kudos to you!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Ok, just had some free time. That looks like something that we DEFINATELY have to do. We get so many dead areas in the back of the tank where waste buildsup. When gravel vacing I know exactly which plants I need to do a deep gravel vac around. Africans produce so much waste that this sounds like something that would be highly beneficial. Thanks for the link! When we move the tank (in december) this will be something that is added to the tank. We have 2 very powerful power heads that are just sitting under the tank, unused.

 

[mr funktastic]

that set up is cool. i have never seen this before. when i get my 55 gallon i might do a mini version of this.

 

[malkore]

...not gonna read all 4 pages to see if this was already said, but pool filter sand is better than 'playsand' because it doesn't compact as much.
Plants grow better in the pool filter sand too, for the same reason.

 

[Puriti]

I went to HomeDepot today and all I could find was white play sand and it said do not use for aquariums X.x

 

[mr funktastic]

i got the sand and i love it!! i rinsed it out untill it went clear and then filled it back upand there was no clouding at all. it looks great and i am most definatly going to convert my 10 gallon to sand. thans for the help in this one because i never would have gotten it if u guys didnt convince me.