hey guys

ive never used sand but when i move later this year i was thinking about putting sand in my axolotl tank and using a mix of sand and fine gravel in my tropical tank.

my question is this....how hard is it to hoover the nasty stuff but leave the sand? doesnt it all get messy and cloud the water?

also the fish that bury themselves in the substrate...they will be ok in sand?

thanks :)

Sands fairly easy to hoover.

Not sure about the fish but I'm sure they'll love some nice soft sand to play in.

fish that like to bury, would probably prefer sand, and i think sand is easier to look after coz stuff setlles on the top raather than sinks between it, so you can just hoover off the top, if you do suck any up it settles on the bottom of the bucket and you can just put it back in after.

An issue would be that some plants would have trouble rooting, so maybe fill a section of the bottom with sand and the rest with gravel?

I always suck up sand when i'm cleaning and i just shove it back in at the end. And my fish love to bury in it.

I read somewhere, might have been EagleC actualy, that said kids play sand is fine to use. Is that right? Because I can get 25kg for £1.50 at work rather than £4.50 for 2kg of very wet sand from lfs.

I take it it just needs washing first. I am going to try the same thing as Symmo and create an area for cory's to play in.

If you have sand, MTS's (malaysian trumpet snails) are fantastic as they burrow through the sand, keeping it aereated, and the eat all the c**p left by the fish too, totally recommend getting some if you get sand

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I've not used playsand but know that many fishkeepers do. So long as its clean, fresh and washed its good to use but dont put it too deep.

Also probably mentioned already but if you want live plants you should add something under the sand to allow the root to feed properly, like laterite.

Sand is really easy to clean, you can quite literally suck half of it up, swill it around in a bucket to loosen the dirt and then pour the sand back in!

Unless its a heavily planted system sand makes for a very easy to clean substrate and looks/works well to boot.

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but play sand can be found at the Early Learning Centre shops and various other places that sell sand for kid's sand pits. I found it looked a bit orange though when it was wet so I got some Silver Sand from a local garden centre.