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10 gallon community set up w/crayola playsand

Discussion in 'Freshwater Aquariums & Fish Photos' started by buzz4520, Apr 21, 2012.

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  1. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Thread Starter Well-Known Member

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    my wife was thinking about doing all our tanks with the crayola play sand BUT i think it's too fine of sand to use with our larger fish (oscars, jd, common plecos) and more active african (mbuna) cichlids.
     
    buzz4520, Apr 27, 2012
    #21
  2. MOD_Dawn

    MOD_Dawn Active Member

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    have you tried to siphon it yet? does it draw it all up being it's so light?
    Haven't tried it yet with my 10g and was wondering if you have yet.
     
    MOD_Dawn, Apr 27, 2012
    #22
  3. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Thread Starter Well-Known Member

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    yes i have...couldn't p/u a frog food pellet w/o getting too close and getting alot of sand, did ok at getting fish poo and uneaten flake food.
     
    buzz4520, Apr 27, 2012
    #23
  4. MOD_Dawn

    MOD_Dawn Active Member

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    so then I'd probably only use this stuff for small fish & probably in like a hermit crab tank.
    Thinking sponge filter would probably be the way to go with this light of a substrate.
     
    MOD_Dawn, Apr 28, 2012
    #24
  5. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Thread Starter Well-Known Member

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    as fine is this stuff is i'm not gonna think about puttng it in with our other fish. my oscars will have one half of the tank bare bottom and a mountain of this sand on the other and the filters full of sand.
     
    buzz4520, Apr 28, 2012
    #25
  6. MOD_Dawn

    MOD_Dawn Active Member

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    lol, I hear ya on the oscars rearranging. I had a jack dempsey (gorgeous fish by the way) that would CONSTANTLY rearrange it's tank...drove me nuts because I'd have the substrate all nice and level and it would mound it up along the side walls. Fish are definately NOT good interior decorators.
     
    MOD_Dawn, Apr 29, 2012
    #26
  7. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Thread Starter Well-Known Member

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    Came home from work Friday evening & found 4 more fish dead. 2 fancy & 2 green cobra guppies. I checked the parameters & the tank is going thru a mini cycle again ! Since we changed to the crayola play sand, can't keep this tank cycled. Looks like this sand will be comming out, which will really bum out my wife because she really likes the look of this sand in the tank.
     
    buzz4520, May 5, 2012
    #27
  8. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Thread Starter Well-Known Member

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    Checked the tank this morning and found no dead occupants. Rechecked parameters: 0,0,5. Going to give it this week & if things (prameters, death toll) dosent improve A LOT, then this sand HAS to go.
     
    buzz4520, May 6, 2012
    #28
  9. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Thread Starter Well-Known Member

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    long story short...noticed that some of the fish were laying on the bottom almost lifeless...rechecked water, same as before (0,0,5). NOW, this time I also checked the ph which came out WAY under 6, checked ph in the 20 & 55 and they showed just darker than 7.2ph. Looks like this stuff really reduces waters ph levels.
    The fish & frogs have been moved to the 5g until we can redo the 10g with a different sand.
     
    buzz4520, May 6, 2012
    #29
  10. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Thread Starter Well-Known Member

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    update: we've thrown out the crayola play sand, had to wash all the decor with hot water to make sure that we got all the crayola sand and residue off. washed out the tank with hot water also. so far the only survivors of this ordeal is : 3 mickey mouse platy, 1 redtailed black variatus, 2 african dwarf frogs.
    in my 10+ yrs in keeping fish, i've never seen/heard of anything that affects ph levels like the crayola play sand dose.
     
    buzz4520, May 12, 2012
    #30
  11. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Thread Starter Well-Known Member

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    the redtailed black variatus didn't make it.
     
    buzz4520, May 13, 2012
    #31
  12. MasterBlue

    MasterBlue Active Member

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    =( man... that bites!
     
    MasterBlue, May 27, 2012
    #32
  13. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Thread Starter Well-Known Member

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    it sure dose !
    here's another update : after moving all the fish and frogs to the 5g hospt. tank, things were looking good for about a week and then the palty's died one by one and then both of the african dwarf frogs died.
     
    buzz4520, Jun 1, 2012
    #33
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