Hello, everyone, nice site i ran into. Alot of helpful information. I was just wondering what some people would do and why. With my new tank i going to use a bare bottom as i think it would be easier to clean. My current tank has gravel in it and it's just too much to look after. I was originally going with sand on the bottom after seeing some of the pictures on here, which looked very nice, but the guy at the store told me if sand got into the filter that it would damage it severely. I have an eheim classix cannister filter and would really like to do sand, is it really that harmful to the filter? Any info on past or current expieriences are very much welcomed.....thanks eve1

Welcome to the site!

I'd always do sand again. Been using gravel for many years, and you can vacuum as much as you want, there will still be some waste in there (which isn't all that bad normally but alone the work). To me, sand is way easier to clean since the waste stays on the surface where it gets sucked into the filter or you can just vacuum it off carefully by moving the hose over it.
Heard that as well about sand damaging the filter but no problems here so far. I have internal filters and soon going for an eheim canister as well, and not being afraid You just gotta make sure the intake is not too close to the sand of course.
Is a matter of taste as well, I personally don't like bare bottom tanks really, and thinking with substrate the fish can do their natural digging.

thanks for in the info. How far should the intake be away from the sand. The guy basically told me if sand gets in the filter, your filter is done for. And i couldn't agree with you more about the cleaning of the gravel.

Pea gravel or sand...i like sand the most because it's cheap...but i only have it in one tank because it gets in the UGJs and breaks em. My 200 gallon pond is bare though. Mainly because i can't afford to put anything into it at the moment because i'm saving up for monstrous tank. I think barebottomed tanks look ugly...mainly because that's not what it looks like in the wild and i like my tanks to look natural.

Just my 2 cents.

Cheers,
Art

I have sand on the bottom of my discus tank. When i vacuum the bottom of the tank i sometimes get some sand out as well. I empty the bucket of water and put the sand back in the tank. Not sure if this is why but i end up with some sand in the filter. No problems so far.


As far as how far the intake should be above the floor, enough so that it doesnt suck sand up. Depends on how powerful you filter is but at least 3 inches I would say


On the subject of filter intakes for external filters, the distance between the bottom of the intake and the top of your gravel/sand should be the same as the height of your biggest fish. This way if you filter fails and you get a big leak that means nearly all the water drains out of your tank your fish will still be ok. Your heater will be bust and you will have a very wet floor but your beloved oscar will be alive and well

i think i am going to try the sand and see what happens, i like the idea of a natural look as well. What do you mean it gets in the UGJs and breaks them? what exactly are UGJs?

i like the sand look aswell as it is much more natural look. have look at the closest nursery(plant place) to you and u will see they have all sorts of stuff for landscaping i found a black sand made of finely crushed granite/marble and it states on the packaging that its safe to use in aquariums,boil it in sum water a few times and yr good to go its fairly heavy and doesnt get sucked up in the filter or vac!!!

wish i had gone for sand!! got some great looking blue marble type gravel but it is a pain to clean.

do you happen to know the specific name brand of the sand? i also was reading that you have to stir up the sand every week or so because it produces some gases that are fatal to the fish. Any truth behind this?

First time I used sand I just used playsand like you put in kids' sandboxes. Would think whatever sand you can get at a garden center or so is probably way cheaper than special aquarium sand. It needs to be cleaned though which is quite some work. Last time I bought pre-washed aquarium sand and just put it into the tank as it was, no idea of the brand though.
I think what you mean about the gases would be waste that gets trapped in the sand and decays, not the sand itself. This can happen if you have digging cichlids for example. In a densely planted tank the plants even benefit from it but without plants, it can happen as you said because the sand gets quite compact (no idea if that is English now). I don't stir it up regularly but even it out at times when cleaning anyway, so that might be why I've had no problems yet. Wonder if the others do that stirring up thing?

nope i dont stir it up either just vac it often enough and it should be good,the sand is easier to vac than common aquarium gravel

metoo wrote:


I thoroughly stir the sand at every weekly water change. Although I notice less of a need to now, since I've added MTS to all the smaller tanks. The Oscar tank has a fair bit of water movement, (and a digging Oscar) so I'll usually only find black spots under wood or rocks.