Re: ph, gravel, and filters

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

I use a sand-blasting sand called Tex-Blast. See, something good comes from
Texas! (No, no, bad - bad Colorado boy - naughty, naughty!). It's very uniform in
size (1 - 1.5 mm). My apistos can mouth it easily and it's still easy to clean
with a gravel cleaner. It doesn't take forever to settle like play sand. It also
has very good porosity so I don't get dead areas in the lower layers like finer
sand. I've checked it for carbonate grains but don't find any - mostly quartz,
chert, and feldspars. It's an over all tan color. I wish it was darker but it's
acceptable.

Anyone out there got any Hawaiian black beach sand?

Mike Wise

David Sanchez wrote:

> I have been using childrens play sand in my Apisto tanks for 10 years
> now and I've never had any problems. In fact, the reason I started
> using sand was because it became very apparent to me that most gravel
> available (at the time) was too large and the fish weren't able to dig
> and sift through the sand like is their natural behavior. Many of the
> old litrature on dwarfs in fact mentions sand as a substrate! In my
> estimation i believe sand to be a very good choice for the husbandry
> of Apisto's.
> Dave
>
> ---IDMiamiBob@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 1/28/99 2:20:44 AM Mountain Standard Time,
> > K.Laidlaw@roe.ac.uk writes:
> >
> > > I use childrens play sand in my tanks.  This is available
> > >  in toy stores very cheaply.  20kg cost only 3UKP (~5USD).
> > >  It needs very thorough rinsing but after that looks good in
> > >  the aquarium and perfect for the small mouths of Apistos.
> > >  They like to chew it up and sift it through their gills in
> > >  search of food.
> >
> > I've heard of sand getting stucki n the jaws of Apistos, leaving
> them unable
> > to close their mouths.  I would be hesitant to use it.
> >
> > Bob Dixon
> >
> >
> >
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