I'm moving my gold fish into a 55 gallon soon, but I'm trying to see if it would be worth buying white sand to put in it. I've got a pair of Red Cap Orandas, and some others. I think the white sand will make the colors pop.
My biggest concern is water changes, will vacuuming the sand take all the sand out? Any tips for keeping sand bottomed aquariums?

The nice thing about sand is you really don't need to vacuum it the same way you do gravel. Since sand is so tightly packed the poop and stuff doesn't mix into the sand like gravel so you really just need to hover the siphon tube over the sand to pick up the debri...you don't actually go into the sand really. With sand just remember to once and a while disturb the sand or rake it or something to keep gas pockets from forming in it.

I have black sand in my tank and it really makes the fishes colors stand out since there is so much contrast...might want to look into that as well...especially orange colors (I have comet goldfish in mine right now from cycling and they actually look really cool!).

Basically what I do is remove the larger siphon tube from the hose (you will get better suction this way and seems to make it easier to clean the sand surface) and hover above the sand so its only picking up the poo and other debri on the surface of the sand but not actually picking up the sand. Takes a little practice but becomes easier. After the sand surface is clean I just finish my water change. Sand is great in my opinion!

dunno what sounds better white or black sand..both sounds class!!

Ikkie has it right on the nose... cleaning it is so much easier (I think) than cleaning gravel was. It does take some patience though. I have white sand in my tank and it makes my O's color pop very nicely.



Not the best pic... still working on the whole "pics of the tank" thing. It brightens the tank too, not making it too dark. What I don't like, you can see the poop more than in the tank that Ikkie has (black sand). For my taste the black was too dark and I felt I would "loose" my O's in it if you know what I mean.

Enjoy and post pics when your set up!

cellowithgills wrote:

but red cap oranda and some other gold fish loves to scoop and suck and spit
gravel...i am not sure why but they do.

cellowithgills wrote:


when vaccumig the sand simply hover the vaccum tube about 1/8 of an inch above the substrate and the left over foods and waste will get sucked up but not the sand. if you do pick up some sand just lift the tube about 1-2 inches above the bottom and the sand will fall back into the tank. it takes a little practice but youll find its really not that hard at all.



PAUL wrote:



im not sure i understand what your talking about here paul. are you implying that the wont move the substrate around if she changes it to sand or have you had a couple too many before posting this one?????

I talked to a guy at the LFS and he said that sand would buffer my pH to around 8.0? Does that mean it was marine sand? Or does he have no clue what he's taking about? What brand of sand do you have in your aquariums?

it would depend on th type of sand used if it will affect the ph in your tank or not.
if you are sure youwnat to change to a white colour sand there are a couple of options you might look into. from what ive seen the least expensive way to go for white sand is to use pool filter sand. this can bea picked up at any pool supply store and is relatively inexpensive. it works fine for an aquarium substrate and comes pre washed for reduce silt in the water.
another is to find a ph neutral sand from your lfs and go that way but it will be considerably more expensive(depending on the tank size).

jsut a couple of ideas for you to think about.

pool filter sand? like the 50lbs for $15?

necromacer4 wrote
when my substrate was sand, i did not see my gold fish scoop the sand the way they
do with the gravel/pebbles. but with pebbles, they always do.

cellowithgills wrote:


yup thats the stuff