Opinion on substrates...

[sirknight]

Play sand, Pool sand, etc works just fine and is very inexpensive.

Live sand made for Africans in my opinion is a waste of money, Just like the packaged live sand for saltwater.

If you want sand that has buffering capability use one of the saltwater sands with Aragonite, but not the live sand version for salt.

Crushed Coral may cause problems because of the sharpness of the product.

You will get into problems if you make the sand depth to deep. Go with 1 to 1 1/2 inches and you should not have a problem.

With which ever sand you use make sure you clean it well before you put it in your tank.

Note: do not clean live sand if you use it.

just some of my opinions may not even be worth 2 cents:)

Joe

[angel]

I never noticed sand in your fish tanks! I thought they were bare. Neat!

[angel]

Thanks Joe. I always wondered exactly what live sand was anyway. How can it be "live" if it's bagged dry?

[baisley101]

Most swimming pool sand I've seen is tan. Can you find it in white?

[jon carman]

Angel- live sand from what I understand is "live" which means it has the benificial bacteria in it already- Joe can answer this better because it might have other little creatures in it also.

[jon carman]

Oh yeah, I put a little sand in the outside tanks, but very little. When they eat sinking pellets off the substrate they ingest a little sand that helps them digest food.

[angel]

I bought a beautiful used setup last night with sand in it. A LOT of sand! I took half out. If it wasn't live sand to begin with it is now! The owner hadn't vac'd it out or really anything in 4 years or so and it still was beautiful. He said all he did is change some water now and then. It has biowheels so I know that helps but I couldn't believe how good it looked.

[jon carman]

Good job baisley- your topic caught fire.

[nebelhund]

I have one 55g tank with live sand and crushed coral. I had heard coral could cut fish but I haven't had any issues with it so far.

I wanted to try it out as I had heard it would help buffer the ph. It has done a great job so far, raising the tap water to low 8's which is a good spot for cichlids from my reading.

I have not had any problems when cleaning it. The water flow just isn't heavy enough to suck the sand or coral into the pipe. The first few times I cleaned it I felt the output water to see if there was any sand and I didn't feel any at all.

[baisley101]

THanks alot for the info guys. Everyone here is so helpful.

[jon carman]

In my shellie tanks in the past, I have put nothing but medium sized seashells

[titansfever83]

I have the PFS(pool filter sand) in my Geophagus tank. I love it. The poop stays on top of it making it easy to siphon. It is slightly larger than play sand and a lot cleaner. I don't even wash my PFS, just add it straight to the tank.

I would suggest not to put too much in the bottom, 1.5" tops. Mine are probably 1" deep and most of my fish move it around so there is no time for it collect gases.

If your substrate is scratching the glass, imagine what it's doing to the inside of your fishes mouth, just a thought.

[fishme]

I use pool filter sand in my biggest tank. You can buy 50-pound bags for $10. Not really a problem with the python sucking it into the tube, although you obviously don't want to dig into it the way you do with gravel substrate. Just hover an inch or so above the sand to do the job. It seems heavy enough to drop back out of the tube when it does go in there. I just switched over from gravel about a month ago, and I have to say the fish responded immediately. They love sifting in it for food.