Adding Sand
 

Total newb question here, but every water change I lose a little sand from syphoning crap up. The sand level is getting pretty low. Will it harm my system to add more substrate back in it??

depends on where the sand comes from typically there is always a possibility of things like phosphate leaching out and an amonia spike if theres die off but a really really good rinse will reduce that posibillity.


personally im not a fan of vacumming i prefer the add more flow to your tank so ditrius doesnt build up approach but every one is different:)

can buy cheap silica sand too
 

you can also buy 50 lbs of silica sand I guess which is around $9..... nice white colour almost identical to sand see in tanks; comes it handy for other purposes too. In my area, the brand from Lane Mountain Company is available in different grain sizes... Foundries that do sand casting, and some even glass blowers, sand blastng ( though they now use aluminum oxide) uses this grade which works fine with.

msjboy