Habitat - Indoor :: Gravel

[ILUV_Rocky]

Where can I get sand?

[Chrisbarnett]

You can get sand from any aquarium store or hardware stores sometimes have it depending on which one you go to.

Preferably you want to get sand from an aquarium store, it's finer grain, no gravel in it, and cleaner from the start. More expensive? Yes, but the quality of the sand is worth it.

[Nettle]

How do you rinse sand?

[Chrisbarnett]

I put the sand in a 10-15 quart rubbermaid tub and put it in the bathtub. I have a showerhead that comes down from the wall on a hose, so I just took the showerhead off and used high pressure from the hose outlet. I rinsed the sand extremely well for about 15 minutes. I still got a bit of cloudiness, so the longer and better you wash, the less cloudiness you have.

I have also heard of people putting sand in a pillow case and then rinsing the sand from inside the pillowcase, and dirty water flows out.

[Nettle]

Thanks!

[Mr. Brown]

I used a pillowcase to put the sand in a full tank of water, but I the easest thing for me was to dump the sand in a bucket fill it with water and then stir it up. Wait a few minutes for the sand to settle, dump out the water (being careful not to lose any sand) then do it again. Chris is correct - the more times you do this, the less cloudy your water is.

You will enjoy sand. It looks great, giving a very natural apprearance.

[zoologist]

i also switched my tank from river rock to sand and i love the change.
my river rocks used to grow green algae, much harder to clean off of rocks then it is glass.

I'll be honest. Torti occasionally eats small amounts of the sand. However, there have been no problems with her digestion and she seems to be pretty regular

[marydairy15]

How about cleaning the tank? I usually just use a siphon hose and a bucket and it seems like it would be really easy to suck the sand up.

[Chrisbarnett]

When I do a 100% water change I put a small bucket inside a large bucket, put the siphon hose in the small bucket and suck out all the sand into the small bucket and then let the water overflow into the larger bucket. It Works great.

As far as just siphoning without getting any sand you just have to be cautious. Put the hose about 1/4-3/4" away from the sand depending on the size and strength of the siphon. The waste is lighter and will go up and into the tube before any sand does.

[marydairy15]

Thanks for the info--that sounds pretty easy. I just upgraded to a bigger tank and I need to do something about the gravel--I have the biggest kind they make and that was fine while she was small, but I'm getting a little anxious now that she seems to have hit a growth spurt.

[TheBean]

Is there a special type of sand to use? Or do y'all use just typical hardware store sand?

EDIT: nevermind. Helps if I actually read ALL of the posts in the thread. found my answer.

[Elsa&Tank]

My tank is bare bottom right now. Do you buy your sand or collect from a beach? If you buy it, is it expensive?


Thanks

[VanishingReality]

I spent about $14 on sand but I got one with calcium, glow in the dark and it said if it is eaten it won't impact. Just basic pet store sand can be cheaper.

[Chrisbarnett]

Elsa&tank,
Just buy it from the pet store. It is not expensive, I bought enough to put about an 1-1 1/2" of sand in my 55 gal and it was about 15 bucks.

[ChocoTurtle]

I have gravel on the tank i have for my baby RES but I'm thinking of replacing the gravel to something else when it grows a bit bigger.