Tropical Fish Forums

[arachnar]

that silica disease is the longest word in the dictionary
pneumonosilicovolcanokoniosis,hope I spelled it right
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[KhuliLoach]

the best $5 I ever spent for fish stuff was on a 100 lb bag of silica sand from a local hardware store. It's a little finer than sugar, I'm not sure what grade or anything, but it makes great substrate for plants and cories, as well as loaches. I just put it in a bowl and wash it with the hose (or in the sink when nobody's looking) it's pretty clean though, and I've never had a problem with it clouding the water. I got a few malaysian trumpet snails off of ebay and they do an exelent job of keeping the sand from settling, getting gas bubbles, or choking off the plants. my yoyo loaches love to munch on them too.

the best way I've found to clean it is to take a piece of air tubing about 4 feet long (longer for taller tanks). take a bunch of soda straws or flexi sraws and cut them lenghtwise, and wrap about 6 of them around the tubing to create a long straight part (should be about as long as the tank is deep) If theres stuff mixed in with the sand take a fishnet and scoop up a bunch of sand and shake the net so the sand falls through slowly. the sand is heavier so the gunk will settle on top of it. use the tubing as a siphon, and once the water is running, tape it to the side of whatever youre using to put the water in to keep it from coming out and soaking the floor. (a tragic problem in my stuff-carpeted room as it tends to grow if you water it) if you hold the end of the tubing just above the sand, it will pick up all the junk without picking up mutch sand. my tanks have all-sand substrates though, and this doesn't really work with gravel and sand.

just my 2 cents
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FEER MY BOREDOM!!!
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[determinator]

.dg
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You have been determined.

[melissaann]

I just set up a new 42 gallon hex tank with a HOB canister filter and I used the Tahitian Moon Sand from the fish store, a 20lb bag was $25 and well worth it. I have a 50/50 daylight/actinic blue light and the effect is spectacular! My cories love it and the current keeps the surface of the sand swept clean (no live plants, just fake ones and a mini-Buddhist ruin) I rinsed the TMS in a bucket quite a bit, but it still left a residue on my glass, which I wiped with a paper towel. (I believe TMS is synthetic) After 2 days with the filter on, the dust was gone and I introduced my 4 cores, 6 danios and one betta. I have found that the subdued lighting with dark sand really accents the appearance of my danios. I like this sand so much, I think I will convert my other tank from gravel to the play sand.

[hotshot69]

just a few hours ago I replace my gravel with sand
I'm going to give it sometime to settle, but I imagin its going to take a couple days
I'm just wondering if it would hurt the fish if it is partially cloudy???

[Flame Angel]

HEy umm you might want to look at the date this thread was last active...and maybe start a new topic

Welcome to the board as well

[cold rain7]

[Mitchman]

[macika]

I live in Canada (Toronto) and I decided to buy sand in my 60g tank. I went to a well known LFS (PJ's) and I saw a couple of packs of sand.. and I saw it's been 40 dollars... I thought I'll throw my brain away when I saw that I am going to go to home depot getting sand for 4-5 dollars. LOL
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50G
planted
low light 1 WPG (now)

[Pikmin]

[quote:7c7a114702="
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All I want are plants