coral sand

Question
QUESTION: hi,

at present i have a small freshwater aquarium with a variety of fish. i have two heart blood parrots, nine tiger barbs, four rosy barbs, two juvenile silver dollars, two juvenile silver sharks, two golden gouramis and two small plecos. anyways i am planning on getting a 60 gallon tank. wil it be ok to use coral sand in it? i plan to put in a few more cichlids.



ANSWER: I don't think the sand is a good idea.  Unless you have a salt water tank I would stay away from it. I can see that being a problem for the plecos. I would stick to Gravel if I were you.

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QUESTION: hi,
thanks for the answer. wil loaches be ok instead of plecos? i have the option of converting it into a saltwater tank. but how often do i have to change the water? at present i change the 50% water in my tank every week. how often wud i have to clean it? the dimensions of my new tank are 36" by 18" by 15".

Answer
You can clean the tank 1/3 water changes every week or two weeks. 50% if it's really bad. As for the loaches. Unless you are going salt water for sure I don't recommond sand for freshwater fish. If the loach which is a bottom feeder ingests any sand it can be bad.