sand and gravel

schizo_fish

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Im currenly fishless cycling my 40 (UK) gallon, running with a fluval 4 underwater filter.
would it be possible to have both sand and gravel in the same tank? im not looking to mix them together but to have something that separates them.
could the sand ruin my filter?
and also what could i use as a boundary between the sand and gravel to stop them merging?
any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 
you can happily 'tier' the substrate.. we had high areas held back with bits of slate.

If you can - get a bit cut that will devide teh tank as you want and silicon it in place - otherwise , over time the slate will be worked out and the sand and gravel will mix together (with the sand at the bottom)

you shoud be able to do what you want to - with a little work ;)

oh and the sand 'shouldnt' kill the filter.

we're running a fluval 3+ in a sand tank and its fine.
just use slightly bigger grain of sand and it'll sink quicker - reducing the possibility of filter problems even more
 
I'm going to stick with a short answer.

Yes, you could do it.

No, your filter will be fine. (Unless you somehow manage to stick the intake too low and suck up a lot of sand.)

\Dam
 
As smithrc said you can put up a divider made of anything you like really, slate, rock, perspex, glass, wood, etc.

I also run a Fluval filter in a tank with sand substrate and had no problems at all.

HTH
 
I will be creating a Lake Tang setup with two substrates - play sand on front right side, and pool filter sand on the right and back side. I will be using stones as dividers, and java ferns will be attached to these stones.

I hope it will look nice... ;)
 
i have bigish gravel underneath my fine gravel so its got bit of stability for my plants, but yer there are no problems. make what you think looks good and it should be fine :)
 
As long as the intake at the bottom of the fluval is'nt sitting in the sand it should be ok. However you could just put the filter on the side where the gravel is and avoid that problem altogether :D
 
!guppy! said:
i have bigish gravel underneath my fine gravel so its got bit of stability for my plants, but yer there are no problems. make what you think looks good and it should be fine :)
Hmm... How did you manage to place larger gravels under small ones? I'd think that over time, small ones will evenautlly sink and form a layer below the large ones?
 
Close to what I want to do... ;)

How are you planning to separate them? Also what fishes are you going to keep in that tank? Personally, I'll be going lake Tang species, and shellies are known to move sand all over the tank, so I have to be super caucious about dividing the two types of substrates...
 
i have an old perspex sheet about 2mm thick, i might cut that into strips and heat it up slightly to bend it into shape.
I hope that it'll be suitable and not put toxins in the water. Is there any way of checking this?
also, are there any fish that don't like a sand substrate? (perhaps fry???)
 

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