So, after 4 months, I can no longer deal with the sand. It was nice to look at but came up with the following ANNOYING issues:

1. The Oscars started "shoveling" the sand all over the place causing the sand to always be floating around and getting all over the deocrations.

2. The sand (white) started to turn a dark grey/black in sections. That probably had something to do with the poop and left over food.

3. Everytime we cleaned the tank and refilled it with water, it would get sand all over everything. I like a "neat" looking tank - within reason of course. I'm not stupid, I know the O's rearrange things.

4. The white sand was a great back drop for the dark colored poop that comes out of these fish!! It was almost instantly dirty looking again.

5. The pleco liked to create craters in the sand and would sit there and flip the sand all over the place making a huge hole to the bottom of the tank.

6. Sump filter - it was constantly clogging the filter material. 3-4 times a week we had to rinse them. See reasons #1, #2 and #5 - especially #1 and #5 for the cause of this!!

So, all the sand came out except for a very small amount under the gravel - not even a full layer. Now there is gravel in there again. My levels are still lovely and the tank is clear again! I went with a mix of colors - black, blue and white. The poop is hidden nicely and it makes for a pretty tank.

The tank now.... The Pleco is still alive - hanging between the heater and the sump box. You can judge how big he is compared to the Oscars.


Piglet - age 5 months - about 8.5" long (loves the camera!!)


Red - age 5 months - about 8.25" long (too busy begging for food to hold still for the camera!!)


Red and Piglet - yep those are fight marks on the side of Red !


Hope you all are doing well!

Brooksie

Hi Brooksie,
If you are aware of the set up I have and the proposals that I am thinking about with a tank? I am considering sand myself and have weighed up the pro's and con's. Silica was one option, white and really nice to look at but a member said he had it and it was too bright that it coloured out his fish and got rid. Never done sand ever but at the moment I think I will be going for the gravel myself...You never know... lol

Hey Brooksie tank looks great! James i had sand in one of my marine tanks a while back and i had nothing but problems similar to brooksie. I know a lot of people have sand and have no probs with it but for me it was an issue. I say gravel is a lower maintence substrate

B, that looks good... Glad you sorted it, and I hope all is well on the BOAT!

"I like a "neat" looking tank"

lol and you have oscars.


Good points...although alas, I must respectfully disagree. I love sand and once having it I won't go back. Watching my Oscar shovel it around and spit it out with some beethoven in the background is pretty much what I do after i get home to relax...and my pleco loves to burrow down and make a nice little space for himself. It's fun to watch. Not really a point of contention but I truly believe Oscar's and pleco's prefer and enjoy sand.

Some say gravel is easier to maintenance but I found the opposite to be true. There is much more space between the granules for waste to fit into as opposed to it sitting on top of the sand, and I used to really have to dig down with the vacuum before whereas now I just delicately wave the tip around (that's whats she said) about 2 inches from the surface.

For me sand was arduous to introduce and I had quite a bit of grief with my filters, although I attribute a great deal of that to inexperience...but once I did it hasn't been any problem at all...no issues.

Tank looks GREAT, btw.

Does sand not damage the filters and pumps? You would think it break them.

johnnyphoenix wrote:

looks great Brooksie!

substrate is such a personal choice - both with their pros/cons. I chose gravel because I was concerned about the potential damage to the canister filter. Some may argue that it's not a concern, but in my pea-brain, it was a worry.

i only use gravel, but today i saw an extension to the inlet of a JBL filter.
it had a small sock instead of the basket, supposedly to keep the motor of the filter clear of sand...
But i think you won't regret your gravel,Brooksie!

I was talking to someone on the site and they said that when it comes to the speed of ur filter it gives the turn over off water without any media in them at all. If the filter has a lot of media and a fine mesh screen on it to stop sand and other particles from getting into it, this will surely drastically reduce teh water rate.... Something to think about

jamesmillar wrote:

True dat, i tried a pantyhose on the comb of my overflow into the prefilter but with the 500Gl/H it started to overflow.

Noddy wrote:


I tried everything to keep the sand out of the filter.. didn't work. The water wasn't flowing through quick enough and I started to get back up into the tank.

I do enjoy watching them play in the sand but I was more annoyed with the filter issues and the sand going from white sand to the gray/black sand. So far I am happy with my choice!

And the boat is awesome Nicki......... come visit!!!

i use sand on my 55, although i greatly prefer to go either barebottom or tile. both are super easy to clean and look great