# To Sand or Not To Sand...



## crowntaillove3 (Dec 26, 2012)

Ah, the age old aquarium question... To sand or not to sand? Hi guys! I have two planted tanks and I was wondering if sand would be a good substrate. I'm going to Petsmart today or tomorrow to get some more decorations and add some fish to my tanks, so I would already be there.

Planted tank #1:
15 gallon Aqueon column deluxe, when new fish are put in:
1 dwarf gourami
5 serpae tetras
3 female guppies
3 female platies
2 mystery snails
Plants: 1 Anubias plant. All other decorations are fake. I will be getting root tabs.
Filtration:
Aqueon 10 Power Filter
Fuval U1 Underwater filter (total capacity: 35 gallons filtered)

Planted tank #2:
Makeshift 4 gallon tank
4 male guppies
1 mystery snail
Plants: Amazon Compacta, Anubias, Windelov Java Fern. I will be getting root tabs.
Filtration:
Marina i25 Internal Filter

Will both, one, or neither of these tanks work with sand? And is sand easier? Thanks in advance!!!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

IMHO I feel sand is much easier to take care of, granted for a while you'll be sucking some sand out while you do your siphoning but you eventually learn how not to do that :-D

Is the fluval filter an under gravel filter?? If so, i would not use sand with that, your sand would get into the filter and clog it up which obviously wouldn't be good.

However the 4 gallon should be fine with sand, what kind of substrates do you have in both tanks now?


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## crowntaillove3 (Dec 26, 2012)

No; the filter will be suctioned to the wall. Thanks for responding so fast! And I have some small rocks in both of the tanks. Just natural looking gravel. Also; how do you siphon without sucking up sand?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Ah okay, np this site is like a religion haha

Okay then sand would be fine for both tanks if you wanted. I personally love Black sand, hides all the poo and stuff although you can still see it when you clean, just isn't as obvious like white sand lol I know the Petco brand sand is good, nice and soft. I use Black Tahitian Moon sand for my tanks because I like the sparkle lol but it's also soft enough for my cory's :-D

I also feel that sand looks better in my opinion :-D it's also easier for the plants to root in and easier to keep root tabs in there too haha.


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## crowntaillove3 (Dec 26, 2012)

Woo hoo! I had a softball game tonight, but it just rained like nobody's business so I might be able to go tonight! I am disappointed about the game, though...


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh nice haha, I played softball for two years and I hated it. I'm much more of a soccer person, played that 8 years until I got shin splints >.<

Good luck on your sand, make sure you wash it thoroughly before putting it in my aquarium, also turn off your filter while you do, it might also be helpful to take the fish out as well.


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## crowntaillove3 (Dec 26, 2012)

I'm certainly going to take out my fish. I also looked up how to siphon sand, and I answered my own question! LOL


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Haha np, it's great when things like that happen.

Also I do this method for cleaning my sand, I feel it's a bit of a cheat sometimes but it works well! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-XB0bwtZh8

I still get some floating particles when I do this but it settles within the hour. I use cleaned out water bottles, make a funnel with some paper and duct tape and then fill the bottle about 2/3. Then let it into the aquarium as you see he's doing, let it fill up with water, tip over and release the sand!


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## crowntaillove3 (Dec 26, 2012)

Should I put the sand over the gravel or take out the gravel?


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## Lights106 (May 16, 2013)

I LOOOVE my sand! It looks 1000000x prettier than gravel IMO. My next tank I am eventually going to put in black sand. My 10 gallon now has white. It's nice. For sure. I'm just rambling now. LOL


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

It would probably be best to take the gravel out, because the sand will mix in with your gravel and eventually will surface above your sand.

So take it out the gravel before you put the sand in 

Also every now and then you'll have to either take a chopstick, tweezers or your finger and churn the sand. I do a 1/4 of my tanks at every water change so that at a month's time all of it will be churned so that gasses don't build up and then harm your fish


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## Crowntails (Feb 12, 2013)

I love the sand in my tank. Looks nice and clean.


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## ZombieKeepr (Mar 6, 2013)

I just wanna add my 2 cents ...

I have had and have a couple of tanks with sand ...

my 5gFBH has white sand[with a small handful of dark brown gravel in 1 spot]:









my 5gHex has black sand mixed with a couple of handfuls of black/neon gravel:









my 40gB has plant substrate which is kinda closer to sand but it has more gravel then sand to make it it a little easier to clean:








and of course my reef has it but that's not a surprise ... gravel isn't usually found in a reef.

Honestly, sand becomes a LOT harder to clean in a tank that's been running for a couple of months to a year. It collects waste ... differently ... then what gravel does[and is initially more work to clean completely unlike gravel which is pretty easy] and for that reason, my sand based tanks get redone about every year where I've never redone a gravel tank unless I'm upgrading it or something happens like it completely dies off.


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## crowntaillove3 (Dec 26, 2012)

Thanks for all of the input! My softball game wasn't cancelled, so I didn't go to Petsmart. I will either tomorrow or Sunday!


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## Gallium (May 14, 2013)

I live to use blasting grit because it's heavy enough to not be sucked up by my vacuum. I also prefer the vacuums that are longer on the suction part. If you go with blasting grit be sure to get extra fine. I think they also sell "heavy" sands but I'm not sure what they treat it with.


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