Hi was just wondering if you could use sand in a cichlid tank, if so what type.....,probably looking @ around 15kg, im planning a south american tank, ive done alot of browsing the last few weeks on the net and have seen heaps of sand bottoms. Is this right ? I know Ira uses very fine gravel witch is the look im trying to acheive but he told me that he cant find it any more . also have seen a black gravel around witch really seems to bring out the colour of the fish

Heres some information i found

Heater (1 W for 1-2 l)

Sand ( 1kg for every 10-15 l water)

Stones (that you can add a well-looking decoration. Some species must have caves, look at the "Tanks"-Section)

Styrofoam or similar stuff to put under the tank (place must be very straight).

Plants

Probably an air-pump and an air-stone, most of the cichlids need much oxygen.

Some species do need special things, like the shells for the Tanganyikan shell-dwellers.

Try reading this forum posted a couple of weeks ago http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=2616

It should tell you what you need to know.

sweet wicked i thought there would be something on here but there's so many topics searching for it becomes a bit tedious

Next day you've got off have a look through the phone book for landscaping places and quarries in your area and have a drive around. Hopefully you'll find something that works. Though, you'll burn up more in petrol than the sand will likely cost you.

i hear you can use bilders sand from place makers witch is bout $10 a bag .... might also go and look @ some pool places to as i hear the filter sand is meant to be pretty good aswell

I ended up going with the pool filter sand, as the shop gave me a bag free. I've moved the intakes for the filters so theyre as close to the top of the tank as possible (its 18" deep) and so far so good, the sand is pretyt heavy and I havent had a problem with it getting stirred up. You only need a thin layer (about 1") and most fo the muck/poo/etc sits on top of it, so its easy to clean, I just give it a quick syphon every 3-4 days.

As for the sand being bad for their digestive systems, from that I've heard most ca and sa cichlids encounter sand in their natural habitat, and no one I know of who uses sand has had any problems.

That looks good, I like it.

looking good there

I love the way your tanks looks David R amazing. Excuse my ignorance but can anyone tell me if you can put sand in any tank... eg.. discus??

moues if you look at the www.dph.nl site you will see an article on useing sand for a planted discus tank

Very nice david well looks like ill go withe the pool sand then !

yeah great stuff dave r!!!!