# sand AND gravel mixed? Sand questions



## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

I just got some white sand for my 5 gallon tank and I think it may be _too _white! I was thinking about mixing in 3 parts sand and 1 part gravel. My gravel is a large size river rocks type.
http://www.petco.com/product/107332...Gravel.aspx?CoreCat=FishFC_GravelandSubtrates

Would that make it more difficult to clean?

Also, What is the best way to clean sand without rinsing away half of it, and whats the best way to add it to a tank that is already set up? 


whew! sorry for so many questions!:lol:


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## kelly528 (Aug 31, 2009)

The sand will move to the bottom and the gravel with wind up on top. As for cleaning, to clean sand you have to hover the vacuum over it or you will suck it up.


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## vilmarisv (Apr 17, 2010)

I don't know about the sand but be careful with those rocks. One of my bettas got stuck between them and would've died if I hadn't seen him.


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## bamsuddenimpact (Jan 25, 2011)

maybe get a fun color like purple or pink or green in another sand color to mix up the whiteness?


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

NEW QUESTION! haha

Ok,rinsed the sand outside..cold..cold..cold..omg..cold..:lol:


slowly took out the gravel,added the sand, readded everything back to the tank, added the water clarifier that came with the sand....35 minutes..still cloudy...when should I put Cleo back into his tank?:|


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## shinybetta (Jul 3, 2010)

It will take about a day to clear. I add my fish after an hour or so.


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

thanks!
:]


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## tsoto80 (Nov 26, 2010)

I think it would look cool with those rocks on top sorta like a beach effect


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

for now, I just tossed in a few of the rocks to see what they will do and look like after a week.

So far so good!











(I don't plan on keeping the anubias in pots, but for now I didn't have much to attach them to.)


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## baylee767 (Nov 5, 2010)

so pretty! Now you should get some sort of creature that eats algae (Shrimp, nerite snails, etc) So algae doesn't form on the sand. Trust me, in a salt water tank it is imposible to kill the algae on the sand, when we stir it up a bunch it'll just keep on going and not get killed. 

But other than that, beautiful tank!! I love white sand beds, they are just awesome! and the best combo ever with live plants!


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

Oh, I know! I want a snail real bad! I think they're cute.:lol:
I wan't to get a nerite, either zebra or batik. I haven't been able to find any around here I have checked at least 5 places so far.They keep trying to sell me a mystery snail instead. I dont want to buy a mystery snail and then finally find a nerite, then I will have a snail overload!:lol:
I might just end up getting a mystery snail though. Or maybe getting brave enough to order a nerite online. :-?


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## Thunderloon (Feb 6, 2011)

Littlebittyfish said:


> for now, I just tossed in a few of the rocks to see what they will do and look like after a week.
> 
> So far so good!
> 
> (I don't plan on keeping the anubias in pots, but for now I didn't have much to attach them to.)


My anubias never took to white sand, even the bio-prepared sand.

I often turned my sand over in the 2 gal using a stainless tea stirring spoon turned into a hoe, the dirty bits mostly wafted off into the tank and any disturbed sand would settle in the bottom of the red sea mini filters.

One of my must-have tools is a 3 dollar poly siphon hand pump from ace hardware. I use it to blow-churn my rocks in planted tanks and if you take Mr Angry out of the tank you can churn a lot of bottom then use the squeeze bulb to carefully sweep just the bad stuff through the filter before you change to a new one.


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## Thunderloon (Feb 6, 2011)

baylee767 said:


> so pretty! Now you should get some sort of creature that eats algae (Shrimp, nerite snails, etc) So algae doesn't form on the sand. Trust me, in a salt water tank it is imposible to kill the algae on the sand, when we stir it up a bunch it'll just keep on going and not get killed.
> 
> But other than that, beautiful tank!! I love white sand beds, they are just awesome! and the best combo ever with live plants!


Good point about the algae, if you keep the plants in pots you can take them out to occasionally treat the tank with algaefix etc.


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## Slayers (Jan 10, 2011)

Little I like that sand where did you get it from?


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

I got the sand at Petco. 
http://www.petco.com/product/111911...-Aquarium-Substrate.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch


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## Here Fishy Fishy Fishy (Oct 29, 2010)

That's the same sand I put in my 20H tank, only I went with the sunset gold.

Keeping it clean is super easy. The crud lies on top of the sand... hover the vaccumm wand over the crud, and it gets sucked up. No need to churn up the sand. If a little sand gets pulled up, it falls back to the bed from the wand, while the lighter crud goes on its way...


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## scootshoot (Oct 11, 2010)

Littlebittyfish said:


> for now, I just tossed in a few of the rocks to see what they will do and look like after a week.
> 
> So far so good!
> 
> ...


Wow looks sweet. Have never tried sand in any of tanks. Am tempted to do the sand thing on my boys 5 gallon.


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

I'm really happy I decided to switch to sand. At first I wasn't sure if I liked it. The sand its easy to clean, probably easier than gravel because any debris sits at the top of the sand, so in between water changes I have a bulb syringe type thing I use to get up anything laying around.


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## scootshoot (Oct 11, 2010)

Based off this thread got myself sand for both the 5 and 14. The 14 gallon already had gravel so took an idea from another site and created / moved the gravel to the outer edges (basically dug a pit) and dumped the newly acquired sand there.

I have 3 cats and the biggest issue I had with gravel (stones in my avatar) was sinking pellets would lodge themselves inbetween the little crevices and pieces of food would go uneaten. The cats would try hard to get inbetween the crevices but they were unable to reach it. The sand is working a lot better for the bottom dwellers, food is getting completely consumed and is recommended for those who drop food source that sinks....


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## Here Fishy Fishy Fishy (Oct 29, 2010)

scootshoot,

"I have 3 cats and the biggest issue I had with gravel (stones in my avatar) was sinking pellets would lodge themselves inbetween the little crevices and pieces of food would go uneaten. The cats would try hard to get inbetween the crevices but they were unable to reach it. The sand is working a lot better for the bottom dwellers, food is getting completely consumed and is recommended for those who drop food source that sinks.... "

I had the same problem with the same gravel type... all that crud and uneaten food becomes a toxic mess! Now that I have gone to sand in my 20H and just a few pretty stones (not a complete gravel bottom) in my 5 gallon, everyone is healthy and happy.


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## scootshoot (Oct 11, 2010)

Here is my 5 gallon with sand setup (had 1/4 inch of gravel already so basically dumped the sand on top). Thanks for starting this thread as it refreshed my memory to look for sand during my visit to Petco. Also resolved my annoyance with uneaten food....


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## Here Fishy Fishy Fishy (Oct 29, 2010)

Scootshoot,

Is that.... a floating rock I see? Interesting decoration 
Looks like a floating betta cave thingee...


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## scootshoot (Oct 11, 2010)

Yeppers it's the floating betta log. They come in a variety of sizes. The smallest one (perfect for a 5 gallon) was 9 bucks at petco, purchased it the same day as the sand. My boy loves it!


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

baylee767 said:


> so pretty! Now you should get some sort of creature that eats algae (Shrimp, nerite snails, etc) So algae doesn't form on the sand. Trust me, in a salt water tank it is imposible to kill the algae on the sand, when we stir it up a bunch it'll just keep on going and not get killed.
> 
> But other than that, beautiful tank!! I love white sand beds, they are just awesome! and the best combo ever with live plants!


Well, that's expected. Algae is part of the ecosystem and it will always happen as long as the nutrients available is adequate for them. Adding some fast growing plants discourages the algae from taking in too much nutrients thus slowing down their growth, however, with brown algae/diatoms, high silicates will still prompt it to flourish. They diminish as the tank ages.


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