need advice please

[mitcore]

please can someone give me some advice on ground clay
i am soooo over gravel, it is nothing but trouble
i am getting methane in my community tanks
and no matter how much i clean or how much sir i have to the groud it
wont go away?

i need other ideas outside of no gravel

thanks all

[Fishguy2727]

You are getting methane in the tanks? How do you know?

I have sand in all of my tanks now. I only use Estes' Marine Sand. It does not affect pH or hardness. It comes in an assortment of colors and is clean and ready to go in the tank.

[mitcore]

i had my gravel tested by the local LFS
it is always grey in certain areas

it drives me nuts
tell me about this sand please is it like gravel or different?

[Fishguy2727]

It is sand, fine and much better looking in my opinion. You can see some in the pics of my axolotls in the other thread, as well as many other pics on my PhotoBucket page. It is more natural as well. When I add it, I pur it in, then you need to spend a little while tapping the sirface. A lot floats or attaches to air bubbles and floats to the top. It does not take too long, and it is so worth it. I am very glad I did and that is why I changed all my tanks to sand.

[mitcore]

how does the cleaning go
one would think having sand means you cant use a gravel cleaner?
it would get suck up

is this correct?

[Fishguy2727]

It keeps the debris on it, not in it. This means the flow in the tank and filtration can do their job and trap it. If there is debris on top you can vacuum it up with a gravel vac, you just put it above the debris and it will suck it up. Some say you need to stir it to prevent anaerobic bacteria from developing. I have not had issues. I have some malaysian trumpet snails in a couple tanks, these naturally burrow through the substrate which will keep it stirred.

I do not know how a LFS could test for that. I am not doubting you, I am doubting them. However grey can hint to anaerobic bacteria. Usually it is black though.

[mitcore]

it smelled very bad too
they examined it and then took it away for further testing
they did say it was methane

thanks for the help i will look into the sand
is it easy to get

[Algenco]

most likely hydrogen sulfide caused by decaying organic matter. Outside of specific plant growing media, I like sand. Pool filter grade 20 sand has a little coarser grain. Substrates that are too deep cause problems

[Fishguy2727]

Estes' is a very popular brand and should be easy to find. Other sands need to be rinsed and cleaned. Estes' does nto need this and is not usually much more than gravel, and since you are using less you should actually save money over gravel. So it is worth buying the Estes' Marine Sand in my opinion. I probably would not have switched to sand if I had to clean it like you do with other sands.

I use just enough sand to cover the bottom, usually about 1/2#/gallon.

[mitcore]

thanks all
i will get on to it straight away
:-)