sand or gravel

[ZAX]

just converted my tropical tank to cichlids. Thinking of changing gravel substrate to sand. Anyone have a sand bed? What is it like to clean up? My stones i vacuum...

 

[marks69]

i had black sand in my cichlid tank for a few years.  was easy to clean, just wave the wand over it to pick up the gunk.  they did a fair bit of digging though, so any rocks should be stable.  the black shot from rental stores is fish safe.

 

[ZAX]

Decided to try sand in my baby tank, just set it up today with 2 Acei cichlids in it. So far the fish are already lovin it, and I really like the look of it. Added 1/4 cup of crushed coral too to help with the buffering, hope I didn't put in too much to raise the pH....Going to test the water tomorrow and find out.....

 

[blaked]

i used white sand for cilids with some crushed coral for ph .
place your rocks on glass bottom .the fish with move the sand and tip your rocks if they are on the sand and un-level.

 

[MDGraves]

I had 11 fresh water tanks at one point all with sand blasting sand from TSC, very cheap. Easy to clean cause nothing fell past the surface. Only problem I found was if the fish, while digging, spit the sand out near the filter inlet the sand would ruin the impellar of your pump. To cure this I put a pre filter on the inlet made of a small pc of sponge. Once I did that I never had a problem again, just rince out the pre filter on a regular basis

 

[ZAX]

good idea, thanks

 

[Buckwheat363]

I have a few cichlid tanks with sand and i love it, looks good and cleans easy but as everyone is saying make sure your rucks are solid. Also as MDGraves  said, the sand gets in your filter and will mess up you impeller, i raised the intake from near the bottom to about 2/3 the way up wich helped but i still am replacing the impller every couple months (only about $5) but its worth it. My sand is also very fine so something a bit coarse/heavy would also help.

 

[yellend]

Digging the idea of using black sand as well.  Though not really appealing to a lot of people mainly because of the earlier connotation about them, they are actually really easy to maintain and clean.  The wand is just to be used so that it could pick up the dirt and gunk and you are good to go.  You should be keen in proper placement though so that they could be a stable ecosystem growing.