Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tanks and Equipment => Topic started by: fcmf on December 28, 2019, 03:44:36 PM
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Since replacing the fluorescent lightbulb recently, I've noticed that the substrate is comparatively brighter. Also, since building up the substrate recently in a vain effort to help my plant's growth, I've recently used up all of the original bag of sand. I'm thinking that the fish would probably appreciate a darker base so I might add some and gradually introduce more at each water change. Having had goldfish in the past who had a tendency to ingest their substrate with various adverse consequences, a change/addition of substrate is not a decision I would take lightly. However, Unipac limpopo sand is 1000-1200 grain size, in comparison with the 800-2000 grain size of the existing Unipac tana sand, so I don't foresee any difficulties as its grain sizes are in between. Does anyone else see any potential problems?
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Years and years ago I bought some Unipac Limpopo sand, but from things I have read it is now different. However, I would urge anyone buying this sand to check it first. Mine was quite rough (I wouldn't like to keep cories on it), and it raised pH, GH and KH. Maybe the water changing characteristic is what made Unipac reformulate it? But it is worth checking that the bag is not an old one that has been at the back of the stock room for years :)
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Thanks, Sue - helpful info.
@fishtales - irrespective of whether the Unipac Limpopo sand is re-formulated / definitely inert now, I'd advise you to stick to the play sand. I'm actually now wondering if the Unipac Tana Sand might possibly have been at least a contributing factor in pygmy cories not having done well in my tank - it definitely would be a lot sharper than playsand, as evidenced by the rather unsightly score marks on my tank where some grains came into contact with an algae magnet cleaner on the glass. On the basis of that possibility of its role in my cories' demise, the likelihood of the Unipac Limpopo sand being of similar consistency (if grain size is anything to go by), plus the issues your albinos have had already, I think it would be a safer idea for you to just use play sand. :)
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Good luck with its safe arrival.
How are you getting on with your limpopo @fcmf Has the method of gradually introducing it been successful? :)
It's doing ok, thanks. I've taken some before-and-after photos but wasn't able to upload even one of them, no matter how much cropping I did. I'd say, from an aesthetic perspective, the Tana sand looks lovely on its own and certainly a good choice if not using tank lights. From the fishes' perspective, the Limpopo sand is probably appreciated as it's darker. At the moment, it's still a transition period - once the two lots of sand blend in more, or more Limpopo is added, it'll probably look more natural than it does currently.
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Regarding uploading pictures, I can't get it to work directly on the forum either :(
I've usually found it fine but I think the particular photo I had taken had too much detail in it - as well as the sand, I'd actually wanted to show a plant I had that had survived for a whole week (some may be gasping open-mouthed in disbelief, and jaws may hit the floor that it's reached ten days old now) but its fine leaves may have provided too much detail to be under the necessary size for upload. Perhaps its non-upload is a blessing in disguise - if it had worked, I'd probably have jinxed the situation. Meanwhile, its plant-mate of the same age (a vallis) is succumbing fast to vallis melt. ::)
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If you want to post the images rather than cropping them try to reduce the actual size of the photo (ie. Without losing any of the picture just make it smaller). Happy to provide a how to on something like Microsoft Paint if that doesn't make sense/is helpful.
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@fishtales glad you got your sand when I saw your post about DHL :yikes: it reminded me of when that happened to me and it was a painful experience.
I also use a tablet to view the forum and more importantly it’s an Apple device :rotfl: so I have many issues uploading here, I downloaded Photoshop Express an app which will save the image as a PDF allowing me to upload pictures to a topic.
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Welcome any time :cheers: I love that story bless the man, our experience well let’s say the parcel was logged and delivered and signed for, we obviously found nothing at home. Our old driveway was covered by CCTV and it obviously showed a delivery being made by said company but it appears he walked up empty handed walked away empty handed and then placed a parcel from the back into the cab. Now I know I may be jumping the gun but when dhl was shown this event as they called us lairs we was compensated quite well so who knows :rotfl:
Back on topic of uploading pictures, perhaps you could try searching a tutorial on YouTube? It’s what I do sometimes if I’m stuck.
Simon
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Great to hear that you like the sand.
I hope we get to see some pics. :)
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Thanks for the pic.
It's lovely to see your fish exploring their new sand. It looks great. :cheers:
I'm a bit of a fan of darker sand, and tend to use it in my tanks.
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Belly is healed, now hoping for some barbell improvement :)
Good news, fingers crossed!
Excuse the steps to the side, I need them to get to the bottom of the tank for any alterations. Underneath the tank is never tidy
If you hadn't of said, we'd have never known! ;)
Nice looking tank, I've always wondered with backgrounds such as yours if they require any maintenance?
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Great that you are already seeing improvement in your fish, and I hope this continues.
I'm sure your pleco will settle eventually, and enjoy the new substrate as much as your corys. :)
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Looks great. :cheers:
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@fishtales - can you remind us if you moved the fish into another tank while re-doing the substrate, or did you take some/all of the old substrate out and put the new substrate in while they were in it? Intrigued to know whether there was much debris floating around during the process and, if so, how long it took to settle.
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[Some posts missing in this thread as, regrettably for us given that she was a valued member, former member Fishtales left the forum and deleted most of her posts.]