4 Foot Tank

[markoshark]

I'm now looking for a 4foot tank.

Decided that my little "Friends" have already outgrown the 3foot.

i'd like to set it up so that i have 1/2 sand, 1/2 gravel, so that the loaches have somewhere to dig. (and the eel can hide...)

Any recomendations about where to get sand cheaply / freely that dosen't contain harmful bacteria etc?

And any bad points about using sand?

[sharn]

i got my sand from benchmark, 20kg bag for 5 bucks. It was labelled as plasterers sand and has done me well in my planted and axolotl tank. I just had to give it a real good rinse before i put it in my tank (put into a pillow case and chucked the hose in it).

Only downside of sand is it can compact rather quickly depending on how coarse it is so you need to make sure that its getting well airated if its a thicker layer. Your loaches/eel will help but i wouldnt want my fish digging around in anerobic substrate so its probably better to maintain it yourself (i drag my fingers through mine). A thinner layer will also lessen the anerobicness.

[snookie]

i find malayan trumpet snails seem to be good hoes .(as in tool)

[sharn]

:lol: snookie

for some reason most of mine died off when i got an algae issue in my planted tank they did do a decent job though when i had a good amount of them

[markoshark]

snails + loaches = happy loaches

[snookie]

if they can crunch mts :-? , hard as nails

[markoshark]

Cool, i'll give it a shot then