Changing To Sand....advice Please :)

[arobinson1984]

Yes I have tried everything, its a strong flow because the eheim classic filters only use 12mm internal diameter hoses meaning higher pressure than my old eheim 2075.

The spraybar is at water level, flowing straight across the surface, it hits the far side, the current then goes down and pushes sand back towards the filter outlet like a circle motion


Andy

 

[kaivalagi]

Ouch...what about making the spray bar holes bigger, it worked for me in a 125 litre tank when I was using one ex1200 for that....I used a red hot kebab skewer to burn the holes larger, worked great

Just seems such a shame to go through all the substrate changing for that issue...there must be some way to tame the beast

If you've tried everything then fair enough

 

[Zoepop]

pH dropping with sand sods odd...I can see anything else in the tank that would gradually increase pH though so fingers crossed!

I'm wondering if it was the under gravel plant substrate that I had it that has raised the pH slightly before and this is more the normal level...going to test the tap water see what that comes out as....

 

[arobinson1984]

I actually quite like gravel so it doesnt bother me having to change it back, just make sure I get some nice smooth gravel for my cories and BN plec.


Andy

 

[knightsfield]

I had smooth gravel before moving over to sand and my cories much prefer the sand. Great seeing them sift the sand through their gills

 

[Zoepop]

I actually quite like gravel so it doesnt bother me having to change it back, just make sure I get some nice smooth gravel for my cories and BN plec.

Don't get the gravel I had then! why I had to change my corys bere getting really worn down barbles

and you are right knightsfield it is great watching them sift through it

 

[kaivalagi]

Sand is so much better for most fish, you start seeing more natural behaviour with lots of species...of course some are used to gravel in the wild but the majority are used to sand in the natural habitat I'm sure.

My cories love it, my BN adores it, my cichlids also like it (see my sig pic!)...it's just better.

This is why I was suggesting as many ways as I could think of to reduce the flow of the spraybar, it makes sense to keep sand what ever it takes IMHO

 

[stuuk1]

Exactly what im planning to do either this weekend or next! What sand did you buy? As there is an argos down the road from me, its where I will go. Also how much did you actually use? (e.g. a bag and a half of 15kg. Also what size tank is yours? Ill be doing the change in a 240 rio.


Thanks

 

[kaivalagi]

I'm sure you wanted the question answered by the OP but I thought why not respond as I have sand too

substrate quantity calc here: http/www.aquariuml...net/subcalc.asp
aim for between 1- 1.5"...

I have a 60"x18" surface area and I used about 60Kg or so, I bought 3 x 25Kg bags and used the spare in a 3ft tank

I used some more natural stuff that needed washing lots and lots and lots...play sand is good but I am not so keen on the paler colours, it doesn't look natural to me. Each to their own

 

[Twinklecaz]

So you need a lot less sand than you do gravel then? Even with plants?

 

[Zoepop]

Exactly what im planning to do either this weekend or next! What sand did you buy? As there is an argos down the road from me, its where I will go. Also how much did you actually use? (e.g. a bag and a half of 15kg. Also what size tank is yours? Ill be doing the change in a 240 rio.


Thanks

I used the argos play sand, only used one 15kg bag in my 240 roma, i'm going to be adding more in patches to keep my plants in place as some of them are still floating so probably about a bag and a half in the end cheap as chips too as it was only £2.99 a bag

It is very light but I don't mind that (I know it isn't everyones cup of tea though Kaivalagi)....and it hardly took any washing, only rinsed it three of four times and it was ready to go in and it didn't cloud up at all when the water went in so bonus there too!



Hope that helps, really pleased I made the change

 

[kaivalagi]

So you need a lot less sand than you do gravel then? Even with plants?

Keeping to 1.5" max depth is to reduce the risk of bad gases building up...at least that's what I've read and it makes sense. If you had say malaysian trumpet snails or other good sand "churners" in your tank you could have more I guess..it's because sand compacts so well together that this is a risk, gas from bacteria/waste can get trapped and release in concentrated form. If you got a coarser grain of sand you could probably use more too, such as pool filter sand etc.

I am sure for the most part using more depth would be fine, but what if your tank was the one warned about and gas built up and eventually escaped killing some or all of your fish

Options I know of for sand are: play sand, pool filter sand, silica sand, kiln dried sand, specialist aquarium sand

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah, to me it's a good thing needing less though....as long as I could still have plants. It would also keep my Dad off my back as I could argue it's slighly less weight!

 

[kaivalagi]

Yeah, to me it's a good thing needing less though....as long as I could still have plants. It would also keep my Dad off my back as I could argue it's slighly less weight!

I get the tank weight thing from my wife...wooden floors by any chance?

I have a few plants in my tanks, not too great with them to be honest but they're surviving fine...it's my fish that like to wreck them that's the problem...cichlids aye! On that basis I might be switching to silk plants soon anyway, when I get my severums added, they apparently love to demolish plants.

Personally I do think gravel is better for plants, it just feels more right, airy and porous, but sand should be fine...If you wanted there is no reason why you couldn't section off parts of the tank with rocks and use gravel in those places for most of the plants...obviously if you choice mosses and java ferns it doesn't matter though.

 

[stuuk1]

It calculated that I need 50kg... Thats heavy for my poor kitchen work top! Anyhoo, its got to be done