I'm buying a 47g bowfront tank that is currently being used as a saltwater tank. My question is can I use the live sand in a African cichlid tank? It's nice and white and I like that. Any precautions or advice would be appreciative!
Thanks

i wim pretty sure you can. its going to be just sand in a freswater. u may need to clean it out cause it will have alot of salt in it

Cleaning is no problem. What about the "live" ness of the sand dying, will it cause a spike in nitrites?

i know it will make your tank cloudy and there will be a layer of bubbles at the top of the tank. and i think it will shoot your ph up as well. but im not 100% on that

Live sand tends to be agronite. It will make your water rock hard and you will get ammonia and all sorts of gunk out of it. Yes the stuff that was living in it is now rotting in it.....

Any good lfs should have bags of agronite. Or go to home depot and get some silica pool filter sand, crystal sands is the brand I use.

what fern said, any pool filter will have it. I got a 50-75 bag at les pool supplies for around $15.00 dollar. used 1/2 to 3/4 in a 55g back when I had my wild caught tefe green discus.

I use Pool filter sand as well and you can find it at home depot for about 1.50 a bag, it works great and Looks wonderful, im not sure where you are at, but i just took a huge amount out of my 55 gallon if ya want it, got to come and get it, but if you are close enough its here. it also has a bit if natural pebbles to break it up so that no bubbles form.

I get 50lb bags of the crystal sands for like $5 a bag.

I'm in north richland hills, a little to far to drive. Thanks for the offer tho. I'll look into the pool sand.

I use live sand in almost all my cichlid tanks. The African cichlid tanks that I don't use live sand are bare-bottom. My Africans are fine and it keeps the ph up. What I do is I wash the heck out of it. Then I pick a sunny day and spread it out over a blanket to dry it out as much as possible. Then I just toss it in. It will make your tank cloudy for a day or so. I use it for two reasons. First I like the look of it, and second it helps keep my ph high.

interesting posts.....I never heard using live sand in freshwater.....I love learning something new!

its super nice clean sand! i am just going to clean it real good, i am wanting higher ph higher. i got tufa rock with the tank, how do i go about cleaning it? water and a bucket?