To Sand Or Not To Sand? -Substrate.

[Fishflyer]

I prefer sand to gravel, but when you are using it in a tank with active fish, like my electric blue haps for example, when they dig in the sand it takes longer for sand to come back down to the bottom of the tank, so then it would get sucked into the filters and stop the impellers. When I moved them into another tank, I went with a fine black gravel, even though it could still probably fit into the filter intake, it comes back down to the bottom of the tank much quicker, and I have had that tank set up with the gravel for a few months and haven't had any issues with the gravel getting into the filter so far.

I have several tanks. One has fine aquarium sand and when my cichlid stirs it up near the filter, it does get pulled in and impede filter function. Another tank has gravel in one section bordering Torpedo Beach Sand. Both are close to the filter. The TB sand has no drift and it's heft makes it fall straight down.

Another suggestion is to do a mixed medium tank with gravel around the edges, or a half and half tank--half gravel, half sand. Mine looks decent. You can see a photo a little earlier in this thread. Keep the gravel portion under the filter and keep the sand away from the filter.

It sounds like black sand is functioning well.

 

[CarpCharacin]

I used to use Black Diamond blasting sand in my electric blue hap tank, but that is what messed up the filters and destroyed one of my AquaClear 110s, so I switched to National Geographic brand fine black gravel from PetSmart.

 

[Lilyann]

I have Caribsea Instant Aquarium Crystal River in my 180 gallon, which I believe is an even smaller grain size then the Torpedo beach. Didn't need rinsing just dump into aquarium- which was pretty great.
Anyways- it was expensive, but worth it to me for several reasons: I have 2 FX filters in here and didn't want to deal with suspended sand ruining the filters, it is primarily an eartheater tank, I am a 50 year old woman who did not find rinsing the amount of sand needed for this tank appealing.

There is no suspended sand ever. The color is perfect as a light tan. no back pain.

 

[Fishflyer]

I have Caribsea Instant Aquarium Crystal River in my 180 gallon, which I believe is an even smaller grain size then the Torpedo beach. Didn't need rinsing just dump into aquarium- which was pretty great.
Anyways- it was expensive, but worth it to me for several reasons: I have 2 FX filters in here and didn't want to deal with suspended sand ruining the filters, it is primarily an eartheater tank, I am a 50 year old woman who did not find rinsing the amount of sand needed for this tank appealing.

There is no suspended sand ever. The color is perfect as a light tan. no back pain.

[/QUOTE. Beautiful picture and tank. Member Cardeater maybe interested in your post, as he is thinking about obtaining some CaribSea Torpedo Beach. I will notify him.

 

[altums85]

certain sands are heavier than others. you want the heavier one's so it settles down fast when stirred up. used to have caribsea sunset gold. loved the brownish tan color. but it was so light. would stick around longer when stirred up. and hate how the flow pushes all the sand to a certain area cuz how light the sand was. got some pool filter sand from leslie pool supply and their sand was way heavier and settle a lot faster when it was stirred.

 

[Fishflyer]

The CaribSea Torpedo Beach is about the right weight. It allows itself to be drawn up into the vacuum chamber to be cleaned, (there was nothing to clean) but it doesn't draw into the suction tube and quickly dropped back to the aquarium floor. It doesn't drift when stirred and has a nice white glow.

 

[Fishflyer]

certain sands are heavier than others. you want the heavier one's so it settles down fast when stirred up. used to have caribsea sunset gold. loved the brownish tan color. but it was so light. would stick around longer when stirred up. and hate how the flow pushes all the sand to a certain area cuz how light the sand was. got some pool filter sand from leslie pool supply and their sand was way heavier and settle a lot faster when it was stirred.

Cardeater--Here is someone with Pool Filter sand experience. I don't have experience with PFS. I did acquire play sand and mix it with light aquarium sand. The heavy play sand mixed made the aquarium sand heavier also.

 

[Fishflyer]

I have Caribsea Instant Aquarium Crystal River in my 180 gallon, which I believe is an even smaller grain size then the Torpedo beach. Didn't need rinsing just dump into aquarium- which was pretty great.
Anyways- it was expensive, but worth it to me for several reasons: I have 2 FX filters in here and didn't want to deal with suspended sand ruining the filters, it is primarily an eartheater tank, I am a 50 year old woman who did not find rinsing the amount of sand needed for this tank appealing.

There is no suspended sand ever. The color is perfect as a light tan. no back pain.

It is a beautiful set up Lilyann. If you don't mind me asking what is that colorful, striking fish in the foreground? I have CaribSea Torpedo Beach Sand by the way. I too found initial cleaning was minimal. Because of the weight of this substrate it doesn't hang around in the water and stays put. It has a pearly glow, but looks natural, like a crushed shell and sand beach. There are photos a page or so back in this thread. I would post one here, but for some reason was unable to post photos, so another member who is interested in Torpedo Beach Sand was kind enough to post them. I am extremely happy with this substrate's low maintenance and appearance.

 

[Lilyann]

Thank you. It is a geophagus sveni

Here is a picture (( kinda a poor one) I took recently of the whole tank. I need to clean up some of the plants- getting a bit overgrown.

 

[Fishflyer]

For folks who have problems with sand, but don't care for gravel either there is River Gems. It is all tiny agate pebbles, about 3 x the size of rice grains. Colors range from clear to milky translucent to tan. They are rounded edged and appear to have a natural polish. Very nice looking.