On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 22:54:10 +0100, John
wrote:

Hello.

I have a slightly strange question.

Hey, with fish just about every question is strange.

For example my Red Eyed Tetras went down one in number quite a few
weeks ago, when the largest Tetra suffered an unusual death.

The thing about Red Eyed Tetras is that they are territorial, which
means that they are forever defending their ground by removing a few
scales from their neighbouring Red Eyed Tetras.

Since these Tetras also like to group together now and again for
various reasons, with the most obvious one being night, then the
choice of defending your territory or grouping together can be a bit
different for each Tetra. That helps to remove yet more scales.

Now this Tetra that died was the largest of all these Tetras, which
means that he owned the largest territory and had the most fights with
his neighbours in protecting this territory.

This fighting is the only explanation I can think of to explain the
bubble that appeared out the left side of this Tetra, looking just
like an air bubble.

I noticed that for a couple of days, but just before looking into what
it was I noticed that it had vanished. And so this Tetra lived on
happily for one more day before it went belly up.

So with fish anything normal is often abnormal, but back to your
question...

If I have just over 3KG of sand, what size of aquarium would I be able
to use this sand in as a substrate do you think?

I was looking into substrate very recently, where I noticed that 2.5
kg was recommended per square foot. That could have been more for
gravel though, but sand should not be far off.

A more important question must be how thick do you want your sand? As
that affects how much area it can cover.

I know this is a strange way of doing it because normally you choose
the aquarium and then buy enough sand or whatever to cover it,

That is still hard, when without some advice, then you still have to
guess the amount.

For my two new aquariums I ordered 25 kg of natural gravel and 5 kg (I
think) of freshwater sand. This is more than what I need, but this
spare allows me to be flexible.

however
this sand I got is special and the place I got it from is thousands of
miles away and I only have just over 3KG of it.

Must have been an expensive trip.

I know it might be a smallish tank, and it would probably have to be
freshwater tropical not marine,

Sand is usually rated for either marine or fresh water, which makes me
assume that marine sand has salt and other things in it.

but I'd really appreciate any help in
calculating this, or any links you know of that say how much sand you
need to cover different sizes of aquarium.

I cannot see that you will get more than a square foot out of it, but
then you can always lay it to a thinner level.

I actually plan to add a layer of Flourite underneath it and have it
mainly as a planted tank, perhaps with a couple of fish.

Sounds like you are doing a lot of work for a few plants, which makes
me wonder if you are on overkill.

There is a chance I could always have a slightly bigger tank than it
would cover and just be innovative with the space it won't cover by
adding other things.

I would recommend a sand and gravel mix, but no doubt that is
blasphemy to your plans.

Unless all your plants need your special sand, then having some gravel
in the spare area is not such a bad idea. Then of course you can buy
freshwater or marine sand locally, just like what I did.

Anyway thanks very much for your help

Not that I know much about substrate volumes, but as I was just
looking into that myself a couple of days ago, then maybe you will
find my answer useful.

Good luck.

Cardman
http://www.cardman.com
http://www.cardman.co.uk