How many pounds of aquarium sand do I need for a 29 gallon tank?
by Aquaboy on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 | 5 Comments
I would like approx. 2 inches of sand on the bottom of the tank. The sand comes in 20lb bags…Is two bags (40lbs) enough? I am ordering online and not sure how much to order. Thanks for the help.
I wanna say that I think it is a pound of sand to every gallon. two bags would be perfect, you might even have more than what you wanted.
Two bags is perfect. You could get two different colors and mix them if you wanted to.
It all depends on your plan for the tank.
Are you keeping animals that burrow in the sand?
Are you setting up a marine tank with a Deep Sand Bed?
Will you use an undergravel filter (in which case you should be getting gravel, not sand)?
In general, though, one 20-pound bag of sand should be plenty for a shallow layer of sand covering the bottom of a typical 29-gallon tank, which is 30 inches long by 12 to 13 inches wide (outside measurements).
And if the sand is just for looks, I reccomend cheating the system, so to speak. Buy yourself some gravel, and just use the sand on top and on the sides. generally 1″ of substrate is enough, but if you want sand, or are using an under-gravel-filter system, you might wanna keep a layer of gravel between the sand and intakes, and use maybe up to 1.5″ to 2″ substrate. Otherwise, if you have a hang-on-back, or a canister filter, substrate is more for show and color than anything else.
40 lbs should be just right.if you want to save money on shipping go to the home store or a hardware store and pick up sand there no shipping and its a lot cheaper. i am useing white pool filter sand it cost me about about $ 8.00 for 2o lbs and it works great you can also use sand blasting sand or regular play sand also, a bit cheaper than pool filter sand you do have limited colors that is the only bad thing