Sand

[Opcn]

That sounds nothing like marine sand. those metals and nitrogen compounds have a much heavyer effect on marine fish and especially invertabrates because they are used to haveing everything diluted. the problem with marine sand is that it is calcium rich and will send your ph right up to 8.4 which (depending on the puffer) can be a bad thing.

 

[GP]

How would you go about vacuuming sand if it will flow through the vacuum?

 

[Stryker]

I hover the vac just above my sand substrate.... see, poo be lighter than sand so will suck up first

Sometimes when I've got a fair bit of sand in my bucket (having tipped the dirty water away) I just leave the sand in there and prepare the next batch of water. In doing so the sand is all stirred up and gets syphoned back into the tank with the fresh water

 

[TorPeteO]

If I were to get sand for my pending puffers, is there a way for it to be rinsed, or is there no need to rinse sand?

 

[Stryker]

Put the sand in a bucket and run the hose pipe in it for an hour, allowing the water to over flow the bucket.

If you fail to rinse the sand properly you face days of cloudy tank water. I rinsed mine thouroughly and the tank was clear inside an hour.

 

[TorPeteO]

Great, thanks a lot.

 

[Lithril]

I've only got one tank set up with gravel the others have sand and personally I much prefer sand. Cleaning is a doddle, especially if you've got a small battery operated cleaner, you can clean the sand without doing a water change. Puffers are VERY messy even 2 will cause a considerable mess, if not with poop then just because they are such messy eaters.

 

[GP]

So basically you just hover the syphon over the sand. You have to clean the sand with hose water?

 

[Lithril]

Before the sand goes anywhere near a tank you want to wash it really well, I usually wash it 9-10 times, leave it to stand in a bucket of water over night then another 10 times, by this time the waters just going clear... even the pre-washed sand. Its worth the effort to go overkill on the washing as you'll regret it if your tank goes cloudy.

 

[GP]

Before the sand goes anywhere near a tank you want to wash it really well, I usually wash it 9-10 times, leave it to stand in a bucket of water over night then another 10 times, by this time the waters just going clear... even the pre-washed sand. Its worth the effort to go overkill on the washing as you'll regret it if your tank goes cloudy.

But what if the sand is bagged to buy?

 

[Lithril]

All the sand I've bought has been bagged, some of it is pre-washed, you still need to clean it well, its like fishless cycling a tank - time put in intially pays off in the long run & if you're going to do a job, you might as well do it properly.

 

[GP]

how do you clean it?

 

[Lithril]

Put the sand in a big bucket and fill it up with water, agitate the sand well with your hand and then drain the water off the top, refill and repeat. Failing that you can put a hose in the bucket and keep the water flowing over the top, just make sure you run your hand regularly through the sand.

 

[GP]

And this will make it uncloudy?