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A cautionary note for those of you who use sand as a substrate in your tanks. I was cleaning one of the external canister filters on the zebra tank yesterday when I noticed about an inch of fine sand in the bottom of the filter. Luckily no damage had been done, I don't think it would have got to the point of damaging the filter as I clean my filters in cycle every 6 weeks.

With hind sight I probably should not have opted for the river sand as appears to be too fine and when kicked up by the fish some remains in suspension for a while. I probably should have washed the sand thoroughly to remove the fine particles instead of the quick rinse I gave it. It might be an idea to wash it in buckets by submerging a hose in the bottom so that the finer particles hang in suspension and are washed away in the overflowing water.

Adam, what benefit are you thinking sand has over gravel?

I always thought that bare bottom would be the best to keep clean easily and gravel would be good for holding food in current for the fish so it wouldn't get washed away like on bare bottoms. Sand doesn't seem to offer that benefit.

Just shorten the intake pipe. I wouldnt advise fitting a sponge over the intake as this will only get clogged with debris and you'll end up cleaning it daily.

ewee ,
I remember doing just that.
It did get clogged rather quickly but not every day.

INXS, I wouldn't say that sand has huge benefits over other substrates. I've had tanks with gravel and bare bottoms at various times and this is what I have experienced.

Gravel is prone to trapping particles of food and waste and is not cory friendly. All my corys lost their barbels when they were in a tank with gravel even though it was fine grade. I then moved over to BB tanks, great for keeping clean but they don't look so good and IMO is unatural for the fish. Since I have changed over to sand in my community tank my corys have put on weight and generally look more healthy, they love to dig about in the sand and even partially bury themselves sometimes. IMO, sand is more in keep with what can be found in wild habitats.

That said I honestly think that it's down to personal preference. If your zebras are going to breed I think that they will regardless of substrate.

I have sand in all my tanks, simply because the plecos seem to love to dig in it, and also because it's more pleasing to the eye.

I think it's important to keep some malaysian sand snails in the tank if you do have sand in the tank though, as it can get very tightly packed, and produce anaerobic pockest otherwise.

I've never had a problem with sand in the filter, but I make sure the intake isn't resting on the bottom. Maybe that's why - I don't know...

McEve,

Do you have any more info on those Malasian sand snails as I do worry about toxic gas build up in sand. I have heard of whole tanks being wiped out due to this problem, you can have a thin layer of sand but I don't think it looks as nice.

Cheers.

http://www.aquaticcritter.com/Freshwate ... Snails.htm
and
http://www.petresources.net/fish/plants/mel_tub.html

is what I found doing a quick search.

They keep themselves buried in the sand during the daytime, and come out at night. You can tell they've been all over the tank in the morning as they leave trails in the sand, quite pretty patterns actually

I've never had them touch my plants, and they are cheap. I belive they cost something like £1 for 20. Buy one or two and you'll have mor than you need after a short while. Very useful and a nessecity for sand substrate IMO.

Ask you LFS if they have some, if not I'll send you some in an empty fish food container or something.

Cheers McEve, I should be going to my LFS today I will try and get hold of some. Finally a snail that is useful , I wonder if they will survive in the community tank as there are 3 clown loach in there.

Adam wrote:I wonder if they will survive in the community tank as there are 3 clown loach in there.

They didn't in mine Tasty snacks!

McEve, I suspected as much. Do you think that the 15 corys in there will do a good enough job of turning the sand over? I always see them digging about in the sand but they don't manage to get very deep.

hmmm maybe a kuhli loach? They dig deep, but I don't know if they will be active enough to do the whole substrate... Just a thought

It does however take a long time before the sand will pose a danger, so you could go about it manually oncea forthnight as well. Roll up your sleeves and use a spoon, that's what I've done ...

That's exactly what I do at the moment in the 2 tanks with sand. I make sure that the sand is well disturbed during tank maintenance.

I don't particularly like Kuhli loach but if they are capable of doing the job I may well consider them.

In regards to the Malaysian live bearing snail, I have gravel, but its extremely fine, more like a sand-gravel. Will you get the toxic gas porblem with that? And I have put a few cory's in the tank, mainly for something to look at, but will they lose their barbals on such a fine substrate?

And is there anyway to keep the snail population in check? I don't mind maybe a dozen or so in the tank, but if there are gonna be hundreds, is there any effective means of keeping the population down (apart from removing)?

I keep a couple of Assassin snails in my zebra tank, and they help keep the snail population down. You may want to try that. Good luck.