Oranda + Sand= bad?

tennesseemom

tennesseemom

Shrimp Herder
Nov 16, 2007
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Nashville, TN
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I was supposed to get my 55 gal today, but I think everyone in Nashville have picked up a nasty stomach virus, so I get it next weekend. Which gives me more time to ponder if I want to sand or gravel in the tank.

I love the look of sand. But I have 2 poop machines, 1 oranda and 1 pleco. I'm not going to add anymore fish. I also have live plants which neither one uproot, though they do nibble on them which is ok.

Would I be able to clean sand as well as I can gravel? With the gravel, it gets sucked up a little in the vacuum and i give it a swish and all the poo is sucked up. Would I need or have to do that with sand or will it all set on top? The oranda picks up gravel and spits it back out, is that because he is hoping its food and he would not do that with sand?

Is "pool sand" the same as silica sand? I checked online and my local home depot sells silica sand for use in gas fireplaces.

Thanks!
 
i would do gravel firstly thats goldfish favourite game and secondly its easier to clean.
post pics once you have it set up :-)
 
I agree with what was said above. But also, you will constantly see that poop and it might get kind of annoying seeing as how you would clean it and then an hour later there would be a bunch more strings of poop on the bottom. It would be a never-ending fight trying to always keep it looking good. Trust me, sand doesn't look good when there is strings of poop all over it. Also, when cleaning it you can't stick the hose right into the sand because obviously it will get sucked up. You have to kind of hover it over top of the sand (as close to the sand as you can get it without actually sucking it up) to get the poop. I find that this drains the water a lot faster then it does when you actually stick the hose into the gravel, but maybe thats just me thinking it drains faster even if it doesn't. Personally, I would stick to gravel with goldfish. If your Oranda plays in it and stirs the sand up and then the sand gets sucked up your filter intake tube, it will wreck the impeller in the filter and you don't really want that either (unless of course you're willing to buy a new impeller every week). Goldfish always love to pick up the gravel and spit it out, looking for food and what not, so can you imagine how much easier it would be for your goldfish to suck up sand?? Just stick with gravel, that would probably be your best bet!
 
One of my tanks has pool filter sand. It vacuums very much like gravel as long as you do not get the suction deep into it. It seems like the pool sand is heavier than the 'cichlid sand' (black and white buffered sand) that is in my african tank. The cichlid sand seems lighter and is easily picked up by the vacuum and continues into my waste bucket. The pool sand on the other hand can be agitated much like gravel. It swirls around and most of it falls back into the tank. Since you can not vacuum deeply without sucking up the sand, you must deeply agitate the sand to get rid of hydrogen sulfide gas pockets from anarobic decay. (I made this mistake once and lost lots of fish)

I haven't kept goldfish, but I think they like to pick up gravel better. I do know that my 29 gal with the pool sand has a couple clown plecos. They love to poop and it really shows up on the light colored sand. I would think that a pleco and goldfish would really 'crap up' the place.

It just takes some practice to learn to vacuum sand. I like to take the big gravel vac attachment off and only use the 3/8" tube on the cichlid sand. I use a smaller 1/4" tube with the gravel attachment on the pool sand. It takes longer, but does a better job.

Hope this helps.
 
GF and plec do make a lotta poop; you're making a wise choice not to overstock.

I'd definitely go gravel vs sand, and go with a natural gravel like the "general purpose" gravel you can get at the home improvement store, usually in the masonry section. White gravel just looks ugly with poop on it :(


Not sure what you're doing for filtration?
I'd go with an undergravel filter driven in reverse by 2-3 Penguin 660r powerheads, plus an HOB for additional filtration (about 10x per hour, so ~550+ total GPH ).
 
Thank you! My mind is made up, I'll stick with gravel. I'm using a nice natural colored gravel now, I'll stick with it. For filters, keep in mind they are in a 10 gallon now, I have 1 HOB Aquaclear 30, which I love and has eliminated all problems I used to have with my tank simply because I don't have to replace a flimsy thin single filter. Since I knew I was getting the 55 gallon this month, and my 30 wasn't going to be enough, last month I took the Penguin bio-wheel 100 I had in storage (minus the bio wheel, hate that thing, never turned right) and added the various aquaclear media to that filter so I could get baceria on that filter.

So in my little 10 gallon tank I have a really strong current going at the moment:) My plants dont like it so much.

I'll have to do more research into an undergravel filter. I've seen it suggested to others people before, but never really looked into it. I will do that now!


Edited to add: Tons of info on these forums, I'm so happy I found this place:) I understand the undergravel filter now. Just 2 questions: what powers teh powerheads, and what does reverse do?
 
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An 'out of the box' undergravel filter (UGF) is driven by airstones. It draws water thru the gravel and up thru the tubes. They were "all the rage" when I was a kid, but they do suck crud down into the substrate and require more cleaning than people thought, so they got bad press.

A powerhead is a small water pump; you can also use a powerhead to 'suck' water thru the UGF instead of airstones. Powerheads have a standard AC power cord. See this for an example:
http://pet-king.stores.yahoo.net/47431866089.html

A reverse UGF is when you use powerheads to pull water from the tank, pump it down the tubes and UP thru the gravel. Makes your whole gravel bed a biofilter; you also get biological filtration from the sponge filter on the powerhead intake. Some feel RUGF is incompatible with live plants, not so in my case; all my tanks are planted and do well.
 
I like sand, but with tropical fish. For goldfish I always stick to gravel, they like picking through it allll day long lol you can get a big bag of natural colored gravel at home depot for $3 something you just have to wash it good its dusty
 
i totally disagree.

putting sand in my goldfish tank was the best thing i ever did.. and i did it because they kept getting gravel stuck in their mouths. they're excellent sand-sifters and the poo stays on top of the sand, because there's no holes for the poo to fall down into (like there is with gravel) my tank stays cleaner, my water stays clearer and in general, and i'm very pleased.
 
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