So, I am thinking for my new tank I want to do black sand. I've never done sand before, always gravel. I've read a bunch of things about sand such as to stir it up once in a while to prevent gas pockets. Seems easy enough. Anything based on your experience I should know?

just to give you sample discussion, you may scroll this.
www.oscarfishlover.com/oscar-fish-advice...-up/56906-sand#57050

Air should naturally release itself from sand after a few days, sand is much better than gravel because fish detritus can fall in between the the small stones, but with sand the poop stays on the surface and eventually gets picked up by the filter.
I reckon sand looks better, but that's just my opinion.

sand has to be poked every so often to release trapped gas pockets that accumulate. i do mine once a month or so. all i do is poke the substrate with my fingertips to release the gas pockets

I have black sand and I love it - so much better than the gravel I used to have.

Easy to clean and really brings out the colour in my fish / contrasts well with the colours of my plants

For the sand does it have to be aquarium specific? or does 'play' sand work?

Goob_Scooper wrote:


do you have a linky to a pic of ya tank goobs? I wana see the black sand! pleeeaasee?

i use black sand, and it does look a lot better in my opinion. the only downside is seeing the poo, which usually get pushed by the water flow to around the rocks.
oh, and it gets on everthing in the tank... plant leaves and rocks. but that is because the fish are always picking it up and spitting it out

Foxlarocks wrote:

play sand will work, just rinse it well
play sand is also alot less expensive, as apposed to $25 for a 20lb bag of "aquarium sand"

Before i set up my tank i was thinking of getting sand for my 100 gal, ive seen it in some tanks before and i think it looks great. i asked my LFS about it and they said it can give you problems some times depending on the kind of fish you have or are planning to put in it. Planning on puting oscars in my tank they highly recommend against it, due to the fact that when oscars get bigger they can disturd the sand with one flick of their tail and dispurse it throughout the water, causing it to get sucked up into your filters. now if you are using a HOB filter they said it can eat up the little plastic spinner in the motor and damage the motor very quickly. the same can be said for canister filters to a certain extent, i think the water passes through more media before entering the motor area but can still damamge it, and you will have sand build up in your canister and will have to clean it alot more often.
although i have not experienced it for myself, i trust my guy from the LFS (as far as i can throw him) and decided against the sand and went with natural gravel.

hmm, well I will be running a canister with a hob that came with the tank.... But I would like to set up wet/dry sump.