Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: GJR on December 28, 2016, 02:47:36 PM
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Hi, I have a black gravel problem that someone may have had themselves. I changed from a large gravel a while ago to small black gravel....because it would 'look great'.....what a mistakea to makea ! The result is the syphon won't pick up the rubbish on the bottom as it clings to the gravel and won't pick up the weight. I am now thinking of getting shot of the gravel and putting in sand.....any ideas ?
It's a 200 litre tank with...1 Blue Acara, 1 angel, 2 bristlenose, 1 talking catfish, 2 Keyhole cichlids, 1 Kribensis, 2 Pearl Gourami, 1 Rainbow cichlid, 2 Red rainbow cichlids.
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I have moved the thread to this section as being more appropriate.
The most commonly recommended sand is play sand - B & Q or Argos if you are in the UK - but these are sand coloured sand, and I don't know if you want to stick with a black substrate.
If you do want black sand there was someone ask about that just the other day http://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/new-fishkeepers/sand-question/
Whichever sand you get will have dust in it. It will need a good washing to get rid of the dust; I suggest you clean all the sand before starting the swap.
I have sand in my tanks and it is much easier to keep clean as the debris sits on top of it. There is a technique to cleaning sand - hover the siphon tube half an inch above it and make little swirling motions. This will lift the debris so it can be sucked up. Yes you will suck up some sand especially at first, but if you use a bucket to do a water change, just wash the sand and put it back in the tank. The tiny bit of chlorine that will go in the tank is negligible.