hey bros/ sis i was contemplating on switchin my flowerhorn tank from gravel to sand. but i felt i should ask here before doing so. i just wanna kno ur experience mixing sand with ur flowerhorn. would they move as much as they do gravel?

Of course I had to post in here! :)

I am a sand lover but it does come with a cost. I have tried to go gravel a couple of times and I get fed up with it and always pull it out and keep testing various types of sand. I am currently using just plain old play sand you get from the depot and is very nice and cheap a $4/50lbs. A nice combo is a thin layer of sand, a bag of the landscaping rock and then cover with sand and watch over the next couple of weeks as the fish dig and expose the rock always nice!

So here is the good and bad of sand

Good
- Cheap!
- Poop and food sits on top so better water quality
- fish love it!

Bad
- destroys your filter impellers
- smaller fish can eat the sand and cannot pass it. Ive lost 3 angel fish to this so do not let food sit and let them eat off the sand
- always loose some with water changes

So here are some tips I have to help the above things

1) Clean the sand very throughly and TAKE YOUR TIME. Do not rush this step. Once you add the sand add fine filter floss and toss after a day.
2) Use a standard gravel vac to clean and do it every couple of days to make it clean. You will lose some sand every wc but you can always get it back or since its so cheap just add new sand to replace.
3) Turn off filters when you do anything in the tank. Sand will get suck up in the filters.
4) Get pre filters on filter intakes
5) do not place stuff for fish to play with under the intake rather add a couple of handfuls of gravel in the area so less chance of sand getting sucked up and destroying your impellers


I also recommend a product called Color Quartz made by 3M. Awesome product, heaver then sand so less chance of getting sucked up in the filter and only about $20/50lbs in all sorts of colors.

HOB filter

This post has been edited by danz: Jan 23 2008, 01:39 AM

Danz you the man!!

thanks danz for the quick reply. just two questions though...how do u go about cleaning sand? just keep rinsing it in a 5 gallon bucket till it starts to clear up? and would ordinary play sand mess with my water? for ex. ph?

and where can i pick up color quartz sand? can i get it in any pet stores? or do i have to order this online?

To prep the sand I would add some to a 5g bucket and keep rinsing till its clean and less is better. To my knowledge sand is neutral so it wont throw off any of you levels. Color Quartz is a product for pool linings so you need to check with tile company's. on the #M site they have a list of vendors

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_U...uartz/HomePage/

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_U...e/Products/Buy/

Good Luck!

I use just plain old PA quartz sand in all my tanks. Except for the saltwater tank of course. That one has Silica, Argonite, and a mix of live sand I've bought over the years. I love the sand. It's a nice clean look. As long as you have a prefilter over your intake tubes it won't get sucked up into the filter and destroy the impellers. To keep it clean once it's in the tank just siphon over the top with every water change. And maybe add some Malaysian Trumpet Snails to keep it turned over. They love to burrow in the sand and the fish love to eat them when they catch one out during the day.

Definitely add a prefilter like Katt and Danz mentioned I tried sand once and the impellar was constantly grinding on little pieces of sand. Tough with flowerhorn because they do love to play with their substrate (some more than others) and mine kept kicking it right up into the filter intake. I also used white sand which I wouldn't recommend, it looks dingy after about a month...