MRSkz Posted March 6, 2006 Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 I'm thinking about using sand as a substrain for my dwarf cichlid tank (3cory's and 3B/N as well) and setting up my 3 footer (2GBA's), which is soon to hold some malawi mbuna's, with a sandy bottom aswell. So what I want to know from all you who have tried it, good idea or bad idea and why please? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PENEJANE Posted March 6, 2006 Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 I have found that sand can be a bit annoying at times because my bn's loved digging it up so the tank was always cloudy and I was often having ammonia spikes because of it. But others may find it easy to use. Then again this was in a small 22ltr tank so I don't know how it would go in a large 2-3ft tank. Trial and Error I guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted March 6, 2006 Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 it depends how well you maintain your tank, i reckun gravel allows more room for error. i use sand in my amazon and axolotl tank. my cories dig in my sand but it never gets cloudy at all and the sand settles in a few minutes if i stir it up. if you have thick sand you need to either have it heavily planted so the roots keep it airated (i think im on the right track with that lol) or run a fork thru it at each water change to get some fresh water/oxygen into it cause if you dont it can create dead spots and thats where the ammonia probs would come from id imagine. i have about 1.5-2cm of sand in both my tanks. as PJ said smaller tanks are harder to maintain water quality so as long as you keep on top of everything you shouldnt have a problem. i dont know much about malawis, if they like sand go for it! if they have sand in their natural enviroment then theyd probably love it, i know my cories have definatly been having fun digging (depending on the thickness they could keep the substrate airated for ya ) i got my sand from bunnings, it was plasterers sand and i just washed it and baked it really well before use. its quite a dark sand but looks medium grey in a tank with lights. pool filter sand and kids play sand has been used as well. hope that helped! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted March 8, 2006 Report Share Posted March 8, 2006 Go the sand!!! I've got it in 3 tanks rangeing in size form about 100l to 550l and I think its great! I've found I can use my gravel vac fine as long as I block off the water flow a bit with my thumb (at the out flow end) this lets all but the finest sand fall back to the bottom... Its also a lot cheeper than good gravel! I got mine free from the coast (Quite corse very dark sand so there is not much shell and the pH isn't too high) and also the River but if you want to buy in you can get river sand at any garden cetre - usually about $10 for 20l Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanksman Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 I just got some aragonite sand yesterday - it was not cheap. I am going to use it in my african tanks. It will help keep ph high by increasing Kh. It looks good to from the tanks I have seen. If you want to keep malawis go for sand and if you are getting it from the coast get as much shells as you can as they will increase the Kh in your tank -your africans will do better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRSkz Posted March 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 great. I might try it with the 4footer I'm "borrowing" from a friend. It's been sitting in the back of there shed for a couple of years now so.. If it works out great, if not I can pop them back n2 the 3 footer till I can clean up the 4 footer again. Now can i just go down to the beach and get sand? I've seen something about baking it? I'd suppose you'd rince it but how do you not loose all the sand? Any tips would help, Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 I'd like to mention that having cory cats in with spawning egg-layers is a bad combination. They don't take much heed to pecking due to the armour plating and easily get past the parents and eat the eggs.... just a thought! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRSkz Posted March 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Thanks for that, I'd deffinatly remove the corys and gba's from teh 2 footer if I thought I was gonna have some eggs from the dwarfs. They are all abit small still to be thinking about that, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanksman Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Yes it probably should be washed however as it is for Africans who like hard water then salts are not going to be an issue. If you are confident the sand you are getting is clean you might be able to dump it straight in the tank with no filter etc and fill it one or two times stirring the sand up with a wooden spoon and waiting for it to settle before draining as much water out as you can. It would take a long time to bake enough sand for a four footer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 took me about 6 hours if i joined it all up, excluding breaks in between lol. that was baking each lot for approx 1 hour and i had lots left over. i think i used about 20-30kg of sand for mine (it felt like 60 though :lol: ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanksman Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Go Sharn. Thats commitment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 i think it was more i was commited to keeping my life so had to be very careful not to get sand all through the house, the oven and all through my room :lol: it took me say 5 mins to wash a tray of sand (probably like 4-5kg) then poped it in the oven for 1 hour, so really that hour doesnt count as commitment cause i was doing other things during that time :oops: . ended up doing approx 5-8 lots. actual work with the sand (cleaning it) would have taken like 1 hour or so... but including breaks sounds more dramatic :lol: putting it in the tank... all of approx 30 mins to get plants in and everything settled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRSkz Posted March 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 so baking the sand would you do that on a biscut sheet or a roasting dish or what please? also what temp would you have it on? I assume you wouldn't have 2 or 3 trays going at the same time using fan bake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 we dont have fan bake on our old oven i dont think (well ive never found it!!) i just put mine in a roasting dish and chucked it in at 160C for about an hour but you could use anything that would hold the sand and stop it from going all thru the oven i spose. i dont know if that would have killed any potential bugs or not but it got the sand dry and my fish havent had any problems with the sand so far. you could have it as hot as you like dont see why you couldnt put several loads on at once, only problem i could think of would be weight on the racks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanksman Posted March 10, 2006 Report Share Posted March 10, 2006 Did you bend ya mums oven sharn? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malawi_man Posted March 10, 2006 Report Share Posted March 10, 2006 i think boiling for 5 mins would be easier?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted March 10, 2006 Report Share Posted March 10, 2006 shhh tanksman! were hiding this from her (jokes). krib- boiling probably is easier, have to wash it first though or mix it with a spoon in the pot, i dont have a big enough one either and getting water to boil is hard enough for me lol :oops: i also wanted my sand dry cause i think its easier to work with (im probably the only one that thinks that though right guys?) either would work well, just depends on which one you prefer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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