Fish people! :) I need help

[Mak]

I agree with Pat- sand substrates are a large pain in the butt! Put a sand bed in part of the cichlid tank for them to dig in. Worst move I made. It just clouded the water whenever it was disturbed, it was impossible to vacuum well and just got everywhere it wasn't supposed to be. It's now redistributed over the whole tank and covered with gravel.

 

[MonkeyZero]

This is sooo hard!
Ugh , you know what, I'll keep it gravel. Period.
haha
This is one of the hardest descisions I've made with my fish tanks.

 

[bagendhens]

ood everyones had so much issue with sand, ive been using sand beds for...oh i dont know 8 ro nine years.
the cichlids do a great job of keeping it dug, and once a week when i do a partial water change i give it a real good stir, it gets all cloudy for a couple hours, but settles back down crystal clear after about 2 hours... (no cloudyness when moved by the cichlids)
i use black cichlid sand, its very fine, not course in anyway shape or form and is currently a 5 year old bed, no problems, parameters are perfect, fish LOVE it...i have about a 1" layer through the tank.

mabe its the type of sand being used? but my oldest tank is now 8 years old with a black sand bed from day one as long as i give it a real good stirr every week before the partial water change, NO problems.

but i also think you have to go with what your comfortable with, if your going with gravel and plan to add corydora make sure its a smooth gravel, river rocks ect. generall avoid anything that loks like it might be sharp.

 

[wpalmisano]

Coryadoras catfish, AKA Cories. Very docile, I have neons in my tank now with Corys, and there are so many types of Corys that you can add a few varieties and color up the bottom of your tank. You can add danios too for the upper level. That way you will have fish at the top and bottom and the Neons will stay in the middle.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Well that's a good point, I certainly have known people with sand in cichlid tanks for years, I wonder if the difference is maybe that the cichlids themselves are always keeping the sand on the move so that dead pockets don't develop and so that 'crud' doesn't accumulate too badly (gets moved up into the water and thence to filter)

Not sure, have not had that kind of setup myself.

Pat

 

[babyblue]

Ive always had corys or little loachs so havent had sand issues. cant imagine what it would be without them though.

 

[Mak]

I tried sand in the 90 gallon Malawi cichlid tank. Hated it! Yeah, they dug thru it, constantly! And it ended up everywhere, all over everything, and just looked messy all the time. So I covered it with gravel, which they still dig and spit all over, but it doesn't spread like the sand did. It really depends on what you want and how much you are willing to work on the tank.

And now after all this, MonkeyZoo, you will have to post pictures when you get that tank set up!! LOL