Hey guys and gals I havent switched over to sand yet but did ask my LFS about sand when the guy presented Eco-Complete African Cichlid Substrate to me... he said you dont even have to clean it you just dump it in.... has anyone used this stuff? Below is a link. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=8976

I have heard it is a great substrate!

sweet glad to hear btw I got an albino socolfi today

Well that just sounds pretty high tech for a bag of gravel!

I just use Dorset pea gravel. It is cheap, natural, available in several grades and the colour works. It hasn't got whatever that has in it to lower the Ph though.

I've never gotten on with sand. A deep layer traps too much horrible putrefying things. Like shifting around in it causes big bubbles to rise up which concerned me. A shallow layer seems to move around too much, doesn't hold the rest of the décor down or gets depleted by the gravel vac.

Ok I did it.... The fish are in a holding tank for the time being, and my tank now has sand in it. It looks like a bomb went off but my question is should i turn the filter on?

Let it settle for a while then start the filters back up.

Well i gotta say im really impressed with this sand... I cut the bag and dumped it in its been prolly 2 hours now and the tank is almost clear like normal.

Nice...glad you like it...I love the look of sand but you will have to get used to stuff floating on top of it....different to clean.

We need pictures!!!!

Yea my tank looks alot different than it did a month ago Ill post some asap

Quick dumb question... lol. I see the fish randomly getting the sand in their mouth and spitting it out through out the day.... is that normal?

My fish do it. My kribs do it more than the angels.

Yep they are just moving it around to their liking or sifting through for food scraps....Perfectly normal.

I USE 3M COLOR QUARTZ AND ITS THE BOMB! FISH LOVE IT. I USE THE T GRADE WITH THE BIG BOYS AND THE S GRADE WITH THE SMALLER FISH.