how to deal with sand?

[Nautilus291]

I've been thinking about putting an area of sand in my 55g tank. I dont want it in my whole tank but maybe in the middle front of my tankk. I was wondering how do you clean it. If you use a gravel vac does it suck up with the water? and does it stur the sand around. I wont have it under my filters so I wont have to worry about that I just want to know how to clean it.

[Fishguy2727]

Just vacuum debris off the top of the sand and stir it occasionally. Why not the whole tank? I think it would end up all over the tank. I only have gravel in one tank now (which I have not gotten a chance to change out yet). I think sand is much better. It looks better, is more natural, is cleaner, and the fish seem to like it better. I have a black and white mix in three tanks and my axolotls have a light beige.

[gm72]

I think it would look cool to just have one area of it, but agreed that it will end up everywhere, no avoiding that. Unless you were to build a partition. You could use plexiglass and silicone and make a wall of sorts to put the sand in.

[Nautilus291]

I was planing on building that partition but it probibly would still get all over. I saw that black and white kind in the stores but it said something about raising the ph? Does it do that for you. IDK what this kind is called but it comes packaged with water. Just want to know because it looks cool but I dont want it to raise my ph.

I dont want to put it in my whole tank becuase I would have to change all of my filters so that they are off the bottom and it would be expensive to buy all that sand.

[Fishguy2727]

What filters do you have?

I use Estes' Marine Sand which actually does not affect pH at all. The sands with water in them are live sand for marine tanks, not what you are wanting. For my filters I just keep the intakes no more than halfway down the tank. The Estes' sand should not be expensive compared to gravel.

[Nautilus291]

I have 2 marine bio-wheel 350s and a fluval 304 and 205. Alot of filtration. I added the 205 just yesterday because I shut down my 29g tank and didnt want a good filter just sitting there.

THanks for the help Ill look at the sand your talking about. I think black would look pretty cool.