SAP's and Sand

[Jenniferx]

Just reading through the archives about the SAP's who were kept with sand and MTS not needing as much dentistry I came across this article online.

It's really only the abstract.

http://www-heb.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/congre ... Survey.doc

But interestingly they do say that in their survey C. Asellus were a dominant species in the sandy beach samples.

I currently have small gravel pebbles with my SAP but wouldn't be adverse to switching this to sand. The only problem I had with sandy substrates before wasthat the sand got partially sucked up the gravel vac. at water changes? How are you meant to deal with cleaning? Would it be possible to have a gravel/sand substrate mix OK?

[my name is mike]

the only problem with mixing sand with gravel is that the larger gravel ends up on top and the finer sand settles to the bottom -- personally, i love that look, but it would eliminate the teeth-wearing benefit --

to vacuum a fine sand substrate, you can mix up the sand and let all the junk settle (10 mins or so) -- and then gently vaccum the surface -- that way you dont suck up too much sand