Habitat - Indoor :: sand?

[ColeweezY23]

hey...
i have two turtles...a male red ear slider named Franklin about 5.5 inches and a yellow belly slider named Donatello about 4 inches...i don't know if i should put sand in the bottom of the tank. i have nothing in the bottom right now its just bare and kind of ugly. i don't know if its going to be a lot more work to clean i was thinking about getting some sand and a bottom feeder or two. i also i have goldfish and a few rosies. what do you think.sand or no sand?

thankkss.

[Kingpin Gwin]

I think river rock is the easiest and safest way to go.

[Chrisbarnett]

Heres a link to a thread with a bunch of posts about sand: http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15465
it should answer any questions you have.

I say sand all the way, I changed over to it in my old tank, and now I have it in my new tank. It's great. You can see it in my thread "Squirt got an upgrade!"

[ColeweezY23]

thanks dude.i think im going to look into sand i really dont like bare bottom its too plain and boring.i hope sand works though.

[Chrisbarnett]

I think it'll work for ya.

Just 2 major things,
Wash extremely well
put the filter intake about 3-4" above the top of the sand so that the turtle won't kick it into the filter.

[VanishingReality]

I use sand and have never had a problem with it.

[zoologist]

Chris. You are stealing my sand thunder.

yes, sand all the way! boo to river rocks....

[mat012]

I just put in a layer of sand and decorated it with river rock. I love the look of it. Very natural. The algae eater loves the river rock. And I do too. Couldnt bear to leave them out they are so pretty.

Dont be fooled though by "pre-washed" sand. I bought Quickcrete Medium Sand at Lowes. About $6-7 dollars for 50 lbs. and is said to be prewashed(?). Like Chris said you have to wash it really well. I put it in the tank filled it up - thought things would settle. They didnt. Finally pythoned the water out and refilled - washed, drained, refilled, washed, etc. until it looked good. By then though I had to rewash the sides of the tank really well before the final filling.

If the tank is large I would also have either extra filter pads or one filter set up for just water polishing for a few days. I upgraded from a 10gal to a 70gal (filled at about 55-60). I just put in the internal filter from the old tank. It is small but I think it may have helped in getting some of the finer "dust" out of the water. I have been rinsing and/or changing the filter packet about every two days. Also used a water clarifier a couple of times as well. And now the water is looking good.

My PH was also really high (9.0) - I have read this may be due to the sand. I have lowered it a with a Ph reducer. I dont know, but I have read the Ph issue eventually goes away but for a while you have to keep an eye on it. Someone else might know how serious a problem this would be to the turtle. I have fish too and wanted to bring it down anyway.

So my vote - so far... I LOVE the sand. So pretty! I dont regret using it. Thanks to Chris and this others who gave it the thumbs up. I think it adds so much to the tank environment. One of these days I'll post a pic.

Melissa

[ColeweezY23]

thank you everyone.ill try to get a picture up when i can im kind of busy though.