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I've had him for 4 months now and I had large gravel at the bottom of my tank to find he's been eating them... I do not like the look of a bare bottom now that I've removed all of the gravel. Would you guys recommend sand for the bottom of my tank or large river rocks? I like the whole sand idea, but I have a Fluval 205 canister filter and I'm afraid it will just suck the sand right up. What do you guys think? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Most turtles love sand. I have heard nothing but positive things on the forum about sand. I recommend it! I have a barebottom tank, but the filter will be no problem with the sand. I'm thinking about adding it as well

What kind of sand do I get? And can I just dump it in and it will settle to the bottom? Or do I need to remove the water?

Hopefully someone else will chime in with more help, but there's a great thread on sand.

Click here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17268

When I set up my new tank last month I switched from river rocks to sand.

I noticed with the river rocks it would trap the debris and it was harder to clean. And the water quality would go down after a couple of weeks. You know turtles love to dig, so mine would always be digging up the debris.

With sand my water has stayed crystal clear, it's easier to clean and it's a more natural look. I would recommend have your filter intake at least 4" from the bottom of the sand, that way if it is stirred up it will settle before being sucked in.

If you go the sand route, you can go ahead and put the sand in the aquarium. But make sure to shut off the filter(s) before you do. Once the sand settles then you can safely plug the filter(s) back in. Also the sand really needs to be throughly cleaned, I cannot stress that point enough.

The link posted above is a good guide to use.

Any silica based sand will do. Stay away from aragonite (calcium carbonate sand). Calcium carbonate dissolves in water and will raise the PH of your tank. Luckily, silica based sand is the cheap stuff. Any hardware store will carry play sand or quicrete sand near the bagged cement. Pool filter sand is also fairly easy to get and is usually free of any larger pebbles.

Aragonite / calcium carbonate sand is used in reef / saltwater tanks where the calcium is needed for coral keeping and a PH of 8.0-8.3 is desired to match natural seawater.

VeipaCray wrote:Any silica based sand will do. Stay away from aragonite (calcium carbonate sand). Calcium carbonate dissolves in water and will raise the PH of your tank. Luckily, silica based sand is the cheap stuff. Any hardware store will carry play sand or quicrete sand near the bagged cement. Pool filter sand is also fairly easy to get and is usually free of any larger pebbles.

Aragonite / calcium carbonate sand is used in reef / saltwater tanks where the calcium is needed for coral keeping and a PH of 8.0-8.3 is desired to match natural seawater.

I searched for sand at my pet stores today. I found a brand I like that is relatively inexpensive. It is called Estes' Ultra Reef Marine Sand. Its 96% silica. I planned on getting the tan or white colored sand and a few bags of the black sand from them to mix. They did this in one of the tanks at the store and it looked phenomenal! Is it okay to mix these or should I stay away from the black sand? Here is a picture of it:

I would stay away from that sand because it's very fine sand. Your turtle will create a sandstorm digging and walking around in sugar fine sand. You want sand with medium sized particles... something with a little more weight so it's not easily kicked up into a cloud in your tank.

The best place to get sand is your local hardware store. You can get play sand or pool filter sand. $4 buys you 50 lbs. Pool filter sand doesn't have any pebbles in it. Play sand may have a few.

throwbackent wrote:

VeipaCray wrote:Any silica based sand will do. Stay away from aragonite (calcium carbonate sand). Calcium carbonate dissolves in water and will raise the PH of your tank. Luckily, silica based sand is the cheap stuff. Any hardware store will carry play sand or quicrete sand near the bagged cement. Pool filter sand is also fairly easy to get and is usually free of any larger pebbles.

Aragonite / calcium carbonate sand is used in reef / saltwater tanks where the calcium is needed for coral keeping and a PH of 8.0-8.3 is desired to match natural seawater.

I searched for sand at my pet stores today. I found a brand I like that is relatively inexpensive. It is called Estes' Ultra Reef Marine Sand. Its 96% silica. I planned on getting the tan or white colored sand and a few bags of the black sand from them to mix. They did this in one of the tanks at the store and it looked phenomenal! Is it okay to mix these or should I stay away from the black sand? Here is a picture of it:

'

I have the ultra reef sand in my tank and it has been fine so far and ive had it for like a month. I have the tan color and it looks great! I made the mistake of getting to little of sand so i need to get another bag or 2 for my tank. But no problems so far here, but I thought of getting blue to mix with the tan. I think that would look pretty sweet

River rocks were so annoying. When I finally took them out, I found sooooo much gunk. Sand is much better!

Linus wrote:River rocks were so annoying. When I finally took them out, I found sooooo much gunk. Sand is much better!

+1

Ditto on what VeipaCray said about the fine particle sand. I had play sand in my turtles tank until I upgraded him. I then put in aquarium sand. He kicks up a sand storm all the time. When I move in July I'm switching back to play sand you find in the hardware store.

You can also get crayola colored sand. Make sure you read the Sand FAQ thread because cleaning it before you put it in is a headache.. but its worth it! My turtles LOVE to play in the sand