Sand substrate pros and cons

[Jolene85]

I'm thinking of doing a sand substrate and want to know good and bad. Dose it really mess up the filter like I've been reading? Is it harder to keep clean? How do you clean it? Can you have plants? What's the good and the bad? Please share!! Thanks!

 

[Canary bird]

I'm thinking of doing a sand substrate and want to know good and bad. Dose it really mess up the filter like I've been reading? Is it harder to keep clean? How do you clean it? Can you have plants? What's the good and the bad? Please share!! Thanks!

I love sand in my tanks , I've had no problem at all with it messing up filters as I have 4 totally different filters in the 4 tanks . I find it much easier to clean as you can see all the poop ! I have an eheim power vac and this does the job, I find everyday just hover above the sand and it just picks up the debris , and once a week I have a good dig in the sand with it to make sure there's nothing building up under there! But saying that my Pleco digs the lot up every night so there's not much under the top layer lol... I don't know if you should say its a good point or a bad point ! But because you can see the poop you tend to clean it more ! Whereas with gravel it sinks under the gravel so you don't see as much !

If you do decide to go with sand I would highly recommend swimming pool filter sand , it's so clean ..

Good luck

 

[Jolene85]

I love sand in my tanks , I've had no problem at all with it messing up filters as I have 4 totally different filters in the 4 tanks . I find it much easier to clean as you can see all the poop ! I have an eheim power vac and this does the job, I find everyday just hover above the sand and it just picks up the debris , and once a week I have a good dig in the sand with it to make sure there's nothing building up under there! But saying that my Pleco digs the lot up every night so there's not much under the top layer lol... I don't know if you should say its a good point or a bad point ! But because you can see the poop you tend to clean it more ! Whereas with gravel it sinks under the gravel so you don't see as much ! If you do decide to go with sand I would highly recommend swimming pool filter sand , it's so clean .. Good luck

I've got one big Pleco that likes to move stuff around the tank. I have live plants also and I'm worried about it not feeding the plants. I got some diamond sand that is kinda bigger grains the most sand. I liked the way it looked and it was really cheep. I don't like the look of dirt but I've keep reading bad things about the sad. I want to enjoy the tank and not keep busting my butt trying to get the tannins out. I think I'm just going to throw some in and see what it dose. Thank you!!

 

[Cichlid ism]

I changed over to sand almost a year ago. I definitely love it. Like previously mentioned, it's much easier to clean because the debris stays on top and I use a vac to pick it up. When I had gravel my nitrates were usually high and since I converted it's under control. I have three canister filter and there are no problems. I believe if the sand hasn't been cleaned enough, the particles stay afloat gets in the filter and ruins the motor.

 

[Specialk302]

I have black diamond sand that I bought for 8 bucks 50lbs. And I love it. It was super easy to rinse and put it In my tank. People think its a con cuz you see all the poop but I think its a pro. That means if I see it I pick it up and that makes my tank a whole lot cleaner. Plus I like the black sand because it brings out the color of the fish more instead of pfs that tends to wash out the colors of the fish. But I think my 3rd tank is gonna pfs because I want that tropical beachy look with white sand still.

 

[Jolene85]

I can see the poop in the tank anyways so it's not like it's going to hurt. I know if you put dirt in your tank you can't clean it as well and I like the clear look of a tank with out the color that the dirt is going to put into it. I've got drift wood that's been leached already. All I need are some nice looking rock to go with the sand. Not sure what kind will look best but I think I'm going to go with slate because I can make caves and I have angels that I would like to see if I can get to spawn. Thanks for the info!