Habitat - Indoor :: Sand In Tank

[zdub20]

I saw this guy on YouTube, he had some RES
in a 46-gal tank filled with sand. I asked him
how manageable it was and he said it was fairly
easy, just do a 50% water change every 2 weeks
or somethin. What does everyone think about that?
Pros/Cons? I think it'd look really exotic with sand in
my tank.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcnSTLB-wtc

Peace.

[iac637]

I know that someone here tried having sand in their tank but they said that it was very messy and it was hard to do water changes. They also said that the sand would get stirred up and they would have to wait until it all settled to the bottom and that took a lot of time. Ithink it all depends on how much time you want to spend on water changves and if you don't mind only doing 50% changes I like doing 100% water changes just to make sure everything is clean

[grey goose]

Hoooneylynn tried it and had a very bad time of it......she ended up getting rid of the sand and going with river rocks.
Your turt would probably love it, they love to dig but I think it would be harder to clean plus it could potentially clog up your filter if the intake was low enough.

[4Lancer4]

Theres special sand you can get but i think it cost alot. the sand won't turn into mud of anything inside water. I saw it on discovery channel and i've been thinking if i should get it. The guy said the sand in water feels like wet sand because of some chemistry bonding stuff

[Tenodera]

Whoa. those are some monster claws...(video)

[Twoster]

yea tenodera!..i noticed that as well..and i also saw someone, or maybe just a picture, of a setup with a sand bottom..but the sand i saw was much darker, and i thought it looked a lot better..i would like to see my setup like that..but i dont see myself doing it!..lol

[DavidY]

Sand can become nutrient sinks in an aquarium. The solid waste and decaying food/vegetation will become trapped in between the sand particles. Eventually the sand will continue to leach nitrates and phosphates into the water column causing major algae problems. If you were able to keep live plants growing in the sand, they would feed off the nutrients and keep the water clean. Unfortunately, most turtles won't leave plants alone.

[zdub20]

Like Twoster said, "i would like to see my setup like that..
but i dont see myself doing it!" Yeah, its like..that Vanquish S
Aston Martin would look cool if I were driving it, but.....ok im back
to reality now.

[DavidY]

lol!