Is Sand harder to care for?

[Kendra73]

Hi, new member Kendra! I have recently set up 3 new tanks with gravel substrate and now on my 4th tank I was thinking of using sand substrate. Is it difficult to care for? What do I need to know? Which fish do good with sand? It's a 10 gallon tank. Not sure what to put in it. I was thinking about dwarf Cichlids. I know nothing about their care yet and was wondering if they are hard to keep?
Thanks for any advice!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Not really, just different.

Detritus will just sit on the surface, rather than get into the voids between pieces of gravel. So its easier to see any uneaten food, or poop that needs cleaning up when you do your tank maintenance. You could even spot clean your substrate daily with a turkey baster and keep your substrate spotless.

Sand can get drawn into syphons, so no gravel vacuuming otherwise you will just suck out all your substrate. Just syphon out over the surface so you draw out any detritus from the surface of the sand. Sand can also get into your filtration and wear out the mechanics, so keep your filter intake higher than a gravel substrate to ensure sand doesnt get pulled in.

Sand has a tendancy to compact, and also trap built up gas that can get released and may be toxic to fish. Im not sure if the gas thing is real or a myth to be honest. Ive never actually seen or read anyone that has had it happen and kill fish. Its probably something that has happened to someone at some point, but it seems unlikely to be harmful to me. Someone will now tell us its happened to them. Given the compaction and gas possibilities, sand is commonly agitated to prevent these (i use an afro comb). Or keep fish that like to stir up the sand (corys and loaches) or snails that like to burrow (malaysian trumpet snails). If you go MTS they can multiply and become a pest if your tank is overfed though.

Fish that like to burrow in and forage on the substrate will benefit from sand. Fish that occupy the upper parts of your tank couldnt care less whether its sand or gravel.

 

[Andy Sager]

Hi and welcome.

Aiken pretty much covered it all for sand. As for the gas pockets, this happens more in deep sand beds vs shallow ones but they do happen because of poor circulation through the sand. For fish only, there is no real reason to have a deep sand bed. This is more for plants with deep roots so as long as you don't add these, a simple 1 inch deep bed will more than suffice for any fish you add. Unfortunately, because this is only a 10 gallon tank, it's really too small for any loach or corydora specie that will keep the sand well agitated so you are looking at the trumpet snails for the best sand agitators.

Without knowing if you are new to the hobby or just new to this forum, I'll say this about the dwarf cichlids: They are not good beginner fish. Most species need special care and pristine water conditions which make small tanks require more maintenance. The minimum tank size I would put them in is a tank that is at least 30" long. ( Typically a 20 gallon long or a 29 gallon tank.) If you are an experienced aquarist, I'll add that I used to breed my Rams in 10 gals with mixed success as sometimes the males would kill the females after spawning and the 10 gal just doesn't supply enough space for her to get away from the males. You can take it from there.