If I was to upgrade my aquarium can I start anew and use new sand?

Colin_T said:

Why do you want a 5 inch deep bed of sand?

Any tank over 18 inches high is a pain in the butt to clean.
The only reason you need tanks taller than 18 inches is if you keep angelfish, discus or some of the other bigger fishes.

Keep in mind that taller tanks (24 inches +) will be made of thicker glass that will weigh a lot more. So the tank that is 18 inches high will probably be made from 6mm (1/4 inch) thick glass, whereas a tank that is 24 inches high will be made from 10-12 mm thick glass (depending on whether it has support straps and cross members).

The extra thickness in the glass doesn't sound like much, but it can double the weight of the glass.

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Rocky998 said:

Yah... I'm going to stick with the 40g

And I don't want 5 inches of sand, I just wanted to see how it looked because I didn't want it to be taking up a ton of space in the tank vertically.
I will most likely have a 3-4 inch sand bed that way I can do rooted plants... Hopefully

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Byron said:

In my fish room of several sized tanks, one of my favs was the 40g "breeder." This gives you 36 inches of length plus 18 inches of width, which is a noticeable improvement over a 12-inch wide tank of the same length (my 33g was this size).

You do not want too much sand depth. In my 40g I had about 2 inches when spread evenly before aquascaping. When done, there was about 1 inch at the front; it is dark grey Quikrete Play Sand, though it always photographed lighter than it actually was (my cheap camera/phone). Photos below of this tank in 2016, 2018, and then after my move in 2020. It housed my 40 Corydoras easily, and their constant poking into the sand meant I never once had to use the water changer on the substrate in this tank, it was spotless. Cories are super housekeepers!

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