Can you use white sand?

[craig]

Can you use white sand in cichlid tanks instead of white calcium rocks?
 If so what sort and where would be the best to get it from?
Can someone let me know of the pros and cons of doing this?

[nick]

i dont see why u cant, only problem with sand is that if you have an internal filter the fine sand particles could get in the motor and wreck it, also the fined the substrate the more visible and poo and the more it stands out i found, but i have 1mm stuff and its fine so far.....

[Sam25]

Should be fine...just make sure its not bricklayers sand...

I use sand in 90% of my tanks as it looks good, and is very easy to clean as you only have to siphon the top of the substance... :D

[Rod54]

The use of calcium rocks in cichlid tanks is usually for buffering the water (alkalinity /hardness) for rift lake cichlids.
White sand may or may not buffer the water....you can get calcium cabonate sand (it's white)that will buffer the water.
I use a fine sand in my shellie tanks....but it's grey/black, it does buffer the water, and it is easy for the shellies to dig in...but it is no deeper than 50mm to avoid build up of anerobic bacteria.
I like it because it doesn't create a lot of glare and wash out the natural colour of my fish which I find a white substrate tends to do.

[bryce2003]

I use white sand in a few of my shellie tanks although I used to have it in all of them and it works well and the fish love it. If your near Strathpine there is a landscaping yard just across from the Aussie Pets joint that has it for $6 for 40kg bag from memory. Needs to be washed really well and you'll lose a heap in the process but for that price who's complaining. The stuff I get doesn't buffer the water from memory so need to mix with calcium carbonate, crushed marble or similar. I've got some in a 1ft high tank with a canister filter that has a prefilter over the intake to stop the fine stuff getting in and damaging the pump but only found this to be a problem for the first week while it settled down properly. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Bryce.

[braddo]

Yeah white sand is perfectly fine I have used the silversand they use for birds without any problems.

[craig]

If I was to use white sand what would be the best and /or cheapest way
to buffer the water?

[braddo]

Shellgrit I use fine shellgrit from the produce store designed for birds I place it in a stocking then in the filter or mix it in the substrate. It is betyween 15 and 20 dollars for 25 kg

[nick]

so u want acidic water??
wat ph u after??

[craig]

Yeah, the tank is normally sitting steady around 7.8.

[nick]

so u want to lower the ph??

[waltec]

I didn't notice any mention of lowering the pH other than you there was mention of buffering.  Buffering is used to Stablise pH (both acitic and alkaline).  Craig did ask if he could use sand instead of Calcium carb for cichlids, so one would assume he is keeping Africans and therefore is after a high pH

Matt

[nick]

well i didnt know that, i thought buffer lowered or raises the ph to suit the stanrdards of water from differ lakes etc.....

[waltec]

different buffers for acid than alkaline, in simple terms if you were to but some acid into a tank it would lower the pH but it wouldn't last long.  If you added an acidic buffer the buffer has the ablity to release the acid as required to keep the pH low.  Calcium Carb is alkaline so it broken down by acids, this process is what stabilises the pH high than neutral, that is why people use it in African tanks (Coral has the same effect)

Matt

[nick]

well i use cruched marble to raise the ph, does a good job too