HI GUYS
CURRENTLY I HAVE GRAVEL SUBTRATE WITH ABOUT 15 FISH, INCLUDING 1 GOURAMI, 5 TAGER BARBS, 6 BLACK WIDOWS,2 IREDESCENT SHARKS, 1 MOLLY AND 3 CORYS..
ANY OPINIONS ON THIS SELECTION OF FISH, THERE ARE MOSTLE HARDY FISH THAT I HAD EARLY ON IN THE TANK AS ADVISED BY MY LFS.
I LIK THE LOOK OF SAND SUBTRATE BUT I HAVE READ THAT ITS HARD TO MAINTAIN THE CLEAN LOOK OF IT AND GENERALY NEEDS MORE UPKEEP.
Sand doesn't take anymore upkeep than gravel. The difference is the "stuff" (poop, etc) stays on top instead of going down into the gravel. When you clean it, instead of digging deep into the gravel with the gravel vac you skim it across the surface of the sand. If your filter uptake is a few inches away from the bottom you wont have sand getting sucked up into it. If you do a water change with a vacuum once a week like is recommended the sand stays nice looking. Only thing to remember is to stir the sand a couple times a month to keep it from getting dead spots. I use a big fork and just rake down into the sand to do this.
I switched all my tanks over a few months ago and love it :-)
Your fish, well, just make sure the Tiger Barbs are not nipping the fins of the other fish. I don't know about those sharks, but have heard they get pretty huge.
YEA MAN I HAVE READ THAT THEY WILL OUTGROW ANY TANK.LOL. THE PET GUY NEVER INFORMED ME OF THIS WHEN PURCHASING THEM. I THINK I WILL JUS KEEP THEM AN SEE HOW THEY GO, IF THEY START TO GET TOO BIG ILL EITHER GET A BIGGER TANK , CURRENTLY 120LITRES, OR RETURN THEM TO THE SHOP OR PASS THEM ONTO ANOTHER FISH KEEPER. IS IT A BIG JOB TO SWITCH FROM GRAVEL TO SAN??? WHAT WOULD I HAVE TO DO?? IE REMOVE FISH ETC
look up Serial32 profile, he has sand in his fresh water tank, and it looks awsome......lol we did figure out the hard way play ground sand will detonate a filter if the pick up is to low...............oooops
You have to first buy the sand, rinse the sand, rinse the sand, rinse the sand, remove fish, take out gravel, put sand in tank, wait until it settles (maybe 1-3 days), put fish back into tank. DONE!
you know i still do not understand why LFS's sell iredescent sharks... these guys get 4 feet plus, very few people have room for these. My local Zoo is stocked to the nines, with these things in their Rainforest exibit, they are massive.
My local lfs has one but it is in a 6,000 gallon indoor pond to me it is just irresponsiblie to buy or sell these things. My opinion.
i am thinking of starting up a tank with a sand substrate, a little 29 gallon but i plan on building an undergravel jet system for it.
I just changed my 3 tanks over to sand a couple months ago. Here is what i did:
Washed the sand a couple cups at a time, rinsed and rinsed until the water came out clear. I know its a lot of work, but my tanks were cloudy for maybe an hour after I put it in and by the next day the water was crystal clear!
I removed the fish (they stayed in a bucket with an air stone) and about 70% of the water, put all the filter media in a bowl of tank water to save the biological good stuff.
I then scooped up all the rock and dumped it in a bucket. When it was gone, I had a thin layer of stuff floating at the bottom. Looks like what comes out of the filter. I just left that in. I then took a half hour break to let it all settle to the bottom.
Once the water cleared up, I took a cup, filled it with sand and slowly dumped it in a cup at a time. There is less disturbance if you dump it right at the bottom. Smoothed it the way I wanted it, then took another half hour break.
Once the sand settled down, I added my plants and rock, etc. Then added the water. I put a bowl in the tank and had the fresh water run into that. That way the pressure from the new water coming in doesn't mess everything up.
When it was all set I put the fish back in. The tank was a bit cloudy, but it was more a fog than the bad cloudiness you can get. And by the next morning, when lights came on it was crystal clear and the fish LOVE it!
When I washed the sand (I bought play sand from Lowels for $2.80 for 50 pounds!) I put a couple scoops in a bowl and swished it over and over until it was clean. Dumped the clean stuff in a bucket and did another, etc. I just took a couple days doing that, taking my time. I live in an apartment so a bucket and hose was not an option for me. I find that doing it that way really cleans the sand good!
So, that is what I did. By saving the filter media stuff and about 30% of the water I avoided a crash. My tanks looked so clean and nice! I will never go back to rock. I love the sand!
My filter intakes are about 6 inches above the sand, so even when my Mbuna's get ornery and send it flying I don't get sand in the filter.
I think stores sell those sharks because they know people think they're cool, will buy them, and most likely end up either killing them or getting rid of them when they get too big. Either way, the fish store doesn't take them back, so they get to reap the benefits of selling them without worrying about actually taking care of them. What do they care? They have the money...
I love corporate responsibility.
I think my next tank will have sand substrate... thanks for the tips, Dizz, I probably will just rinse a little at a time. More thorough that way. Plus, I can do that indoors in the air conditioning. It's too hot here.
Actually many pet stores could be selling them knowing that people don't know how big they get and after the people feed them and grow them out then the people just give them back to the pet stores and they in turn sell them for high prices lol. So it's like the customer has to pay to baby sit a fish and grow them out so that the fish store can make more commission when they sell it as a large size fish.
