Habitat - Indoor :: Sand FAQ

[steve]

If you use a foam/rubber band as a prefilter, take it out before you put turtle in. He/She will probably nip at it.

[J0NATHAN85]

Yea I was wondering about that. So the prefilter is there to protect the filter against any sand that might get kicked up as I introduce it to the tank. This all sounds good. As much as I'm tempted by the awesome pictures of brightly colored play sand (for the record I'd choose blue) I'm going to pick up some pool sand tomorrow!

[MEandYouPhoto]

The more I look at the sand option the more I like it but I have read over the thread on sand and I cant seem to get a good grasp on maintainence after the intital set up. Once you have it all set up how do you properly clean the sand, (I saw the sand sifter/shovel thing) but what about using a syphon? Or will that just suck the sand into the sink? As far as filter maintainence how often do you clean your filter with sand? I saw your suggested media load and I am just curious how to protect the impeller from that grit.

Here is my build and pictures. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=33195

Any feedback would be appreciated.

[PridgNYC]

Frankly, I haven't cleaned my sand in the past year. If you have enough flow through the tank, nothing will collect on or in the sand. I'm running an FX5 on a 75 gallon tank which is about 3/4 full on average. The bottom of the intake is about 3 inches above the top of the sand. I don't think there is any sand in my filter, however, I haven't cleaned it in the past year either, so I can't say for certain. In my defense though, I will say that the water quality is still excellent, although I am getting a little bit of green algae growth on grains of sand and the docks, but I don't think it looks bad, it contributes to the pond-like ecosystem and look of the tank.

[J0NATHAN85]

I'm new to adding sand but here's the quick version of my story:

I bought regular pool sand. After adding it to the tank, the tank got pretty cloudy. This left me with 2 options(based on posts of others). I could either wait to see if the cloud would settle, or start doing water changes. In the time it took me to grab my syphon, the tank started to look better already. I did the water change anyway, and after tht the tanks was crystal clear.

Regarding maintenance, I feed in tank and found that everything rests on top of the sand and is easy to skim out after gently agitating the water above any uneaten food or waste.

As far as the filter goes, my intake is probably 6 inches above the sand and doesn't appear to be collecting any sand. I'll update in a week or so after I clean out the the filter.

[Rafa2k]

I'm fairly new to sand as well and, like Jonathan85, I also feed in tank. Cleaning up is very easy with just a slight sift of the sand. My intake is only about 4 inches above the sand and I have no problems. My turtles are both hatchlings still so I don't know if that matters. They dont really kick up too much. They do like to bury themselves in the sand though

[Rachel__23]

I finally got around to taking a picture of my sand setup. I did this about a year ago with Pool Filter sand. It has been great, no issues at all. I find everything sits on top (if the filter doesn't pick it up) so I just use a fish net and scoop up the debris while the sand slides through the holes of the net.
I'm very happy with the sand, plus I no longer worry about Sheldon breaking the bottom of the tank by constantly kicking rocks and ornaments around!
Well here are a couple pictures of the setup. Oh and I wish I could put some plants in, but he likes to destroy them!

[nariangel]

After reading this post I went and bought black aquarium sand from petco ($18.99+tax for 20 lbs) today. So far I've had no problems ~

[VeipaCray]

@nariangel: I only see one light above your basking area. Is that a MVB bulb?

[cutepanda86]

Love the setups.

@nariangel - That is one tiny turtle. lol

@Rachel__23 - My turtle is named Sheldon! Although he doesn't have a cool setup like that. With the decorations - did you bury them a little in the sand? I'm thinking about decorations for when I get a larger tank and I was hoping to keep the bottom clean.

[nariangel]

@veipacray - yes it is a mvb bulb

[steve]

If it's an MVB, try to point it straight down. Having it point at an angle supposedly diminishes it's useful expectancy.

[VeipaCray]

If it's an MVB, try to point it straight down. Having it point at an angle supposedly diminishes it's useful expectancy.

Not to mention it's blinding.

[PridgNYC]

And it's very close to the basking area for an mvb. Don't they recommend much more distance for mvb's?

[nariangel]

Changed the lighting distance and position. Thanks everyone. I'm still learning. OMG I hope my babies don't go blind.