# Rescaping the 180, substrate? etc...



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Hey everyone I will be re-scaping my 180 gallon African into a South American Cichlid tank so i am curious as to what substrate i should go with. I will have Wood and plants like vals, java fern, and Anubis. i am thinking of a sand but i can never find any except for African Cichlid sand/Tahitian moon... as for colour natural of course(brown, whitish). what should i get and where can i get it cheaply. 

Another question is i see many tanks with no Debris from wood or plants on there substrate how do you keep it clean besides the weekly wc.

Thanks.


----------



## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

If you ever come down to GTA, go to menagerie, they have various types of sand at only a dollar a pound. 

Not sure about the pollution at where you live, but if you find beach sand from a more secluded beach. You can just boil the sand (I have heard of success stories with boiling with 1:2 solutions of bleach and water) for a couple of hours. THey should be aquarium safe (but then you would only get natural coloured sand).


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Just buy bags of play sand from your local hardware store.

If you want to go planted, get Eco-complete. It won't be cheap for a 180, but it will be worth it in the long run.


----------



## Katalyst (Jul 29, 2007)

I've used play sand and its pretty messy to clean. I use silica sand and by far its my favorite sand of all to use. I bought a bunch of black and white silica sand from Bell Mackenzi.

TSC which I believe is in Pickering also has it.

Here's a thread on sand

http://oac.comoj.com/index.php/topic,467.0.html


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Thanks a lot for the suggestions everyone. ill look into the play sand and silica sand the beaches are usually pretty messy. also the plants are going to be pretty hardy so i wont be spending the bucks on the eco-complete.


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Oh yeah lol i forgot to ask but what depth should i keep the sand at? i want to be able to plant the vals easily. as for fish that will stir it up ill be getting a good school of cory's if that helps any.


----------



## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

Tropicana said:


> Oh yeah lol i forgot to ask but what depth should i keep the sand at? i want to be able to plant the vals easily. as for fish that will stir it up ill be getting a good school of cory's if that helps any.


If you choose to get with Silica sand I think the cheapest you'll find is:

http://discounterspoolandspa.com/store/Filter-Sand-50lb-Bag-P783C25.aspx

It comes in 50lb bags and I reckon you'll need at least 200lbs, more likely 250-300. I put 100lbs in my 75Gs and it gets me about 2-3" of it.

That place has a bunch of locations too.

http://discounterspoolandspa.com/Store/ContactUs.aspx

The one downfall some think is the black speckles in the white sand:


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Sweet Barrie location is only like 15 mins away. Thanks overleaf. i guess it will be 6 bags then. 60$ is alot more affordable then 6 bags of eco complete at 38$ a bag lol.

Nice little fish.


----------



## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

as for depth, there is the whole toxic gas trapped in the sand problem, and is advised to keep at 1 inch ish. But I have never heard of anyone having problems with this.


----------



## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

Hitch said:


> as for depth, there is the whole toxic gas trapped in the sand problem, and is advised to keep at 1 inch ish. But I have never heard of anyone having problems with this.


Just stick your hand in the sand and move it around a bit when you perform water changes. You'll never have a problem providing you perform a change at least every 2 weeks. The sand compacts over time allowing the anaerobic bacteria to form. Moving the sand keeps it light and allows oxygen to move around.

Plants also stir the sand a bit (not enough to rely completely on) with their root growth. You still need to mix the sand around the plants.


----------



## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

Tropicana said:


> Sweet Barrie location is only like 15 mins away. Thanks overleaf. i guess it will be 6 bags then. 60$ is alot more affordable then 6 bags of eco complete at 38$ a bag lol.


No kidding!

You could start out with 4 bags if the place is close to you... I don't know the dimensions of your tank but my 75 is standard 48x18.

I should also warn you... the silicate dust is harmful to humans when inhaled. It gets lodged in your one way respiratory system and is said to cause lung problems/cancer. Don't be terrified of this as you'd need to be exposed to a lot of the dust (you won't have any - read this all the way through) over an extended period of time for it to harm you, however you can do one simple thing to avoid the entire risk.

The bags it comes in have very tiny holes and the top of the bag has a small opening. Stick a hose into the opening and fill it with water. Once wet the dust isn't airborne and isn't harmful. Don't eat the stuff, I don't know what it will do! It's not harmful to fish at all either, I have it in a lot of tanks with over 50 fish.

You need to rinse this stuff but the holes in the bag make that easy. I use a sewing needle to poke more holes as well. As pool owners don't want cloudy pools the stuff is pretty clean though.


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Ahh got ya. I am used to working with harmful air born crap so i will proceed with caution and wet it before i do anything. i would rather have more then less considering i may change my 20 gal too so we will see about that though. The dimensions of the tank are 72x24x24.

isn't it hard to believe how much it costs for that. its natures work for a price? lol... sort of like water, it falls from the sky but we buy it in bottles that cant decompose. 


Mixing the sand up will be no problem. so i will go deep probably. thanks for the info guys.


----------



## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

Tropicana said:


> Ahh got ya. I am used to working with harmful air born crap so i will proceed with caution and wet it before i do anything. i would rather have more then less considering i may change my 20 gal too so we will see about that though. The dimensions of the tank are 72x24x24.
> 
> isn't it hard to believe how much it costs for that. its natures work for a price? lol... sort of like water, it falls from the sky but we buy it in bottles that cant decompose.


Yea, you'll prolly need 300lbs for that footprint. The additional sand is good to have around anyway to replace the sand inevitably siphoned during water changes/poop removal.

Even sadder than the bottled water is the fact that we import water from around the world. I was looking for a glass bottle to use at work for water and the only thing I could find was a Blu bottle from Italy... $1.69. This stuff is bottled in Italy, shipped across the world, and sold for less than $2. Sad.


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

i know its pretty bad..


----------



## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Locally I can get 88 lb bags of silica sand for less than $10. I'm not sure exactly, (because I didn't ask), but it is cheaper than the black blasting sand which is $10 (and which I'm using). I wouldn't consider sand at "only a dollar a pound" to be cheap, especially if you need 300 lbs.
Has anyone using playsand ever dragged a magnet through it? I'm curious as to whether it has iron filings in it.


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

never did the magnet deal before but yes 1$ per lb is kinda alot lol... but thats why im getting the white silica sand for 10$ per 55lb.


----------



## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Tropicana said:


> im getting the white silica sand for 10$ per 55lb.





BillD said:


> Locally I can get 88 lb bags of silica sand for less than $10.


Where are you guys getting this sand from? care to share?


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

hey Hitch Overleaf mentioned it on the first page. 
http://discounterspoolandspa.com/sto...g-P783C25.aspx
50 lb for 10$. theres a few locations too.


----------



## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

wow.....totally missed that...lol

Thanks


----------



## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

I bought the Black Blasting grit which is actually nickel slag, from Bathe and Maclellan, a building supply store in Oshawa. Last time in there, I looked at their inventory. They have 2 grades of black (20 and 40, although they occasionally get 12, which would be my preference), sold for 50 lb @$7.50, and 88 [email protected]$10, at least 2 grades of silica sand, and what used to be sold as "natural" aquarum gravel, that goes for about $6 for a 50 lb bag.


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Well i went with The Pool filter sand (silica) and it looks great in my opinion. i have also added a few pieces of wood 2 of which wont sink at all. SO i thought i would let you guys see what it looks like as of now. The third picture is what it looked like before. I will add another picture when everything is done.


----------



## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

Looking good trop! How much sand did you end up using?


----------



## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

that original stump would look good in it too. I use stainless screws and bolt a rock on the bottom of the wood. In your case just bury the rock in the sand.


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

The original stump is in there lol its cut into 2 i plan to put one in each corner and put plants on them. I held the full stump down with 2 large rocks last time. But i also know where to find more stumps much like it if i need. though they are Pine.

I ended up using 200lbs or 4 bags of the silica sand and i have 3"s. thats for a 6'x2' footprint. it worked out great. and i have 2 bags left for my other tanks.



on a side note, i was thinking of leaving the 2 pieces of stump floating and have more wood cover the bottom. I think it would look really neat. i could have 2 levels of plants too but i may just leave that lol.


----------

