Oh you should have great trees there then. Go for a hiking trip and see what you can scavenge up!

I just changed my 3 tanks over to sand a couple months ago. Here is what i did:

Washed the sand a couple cups at a time, rinsed and rinsed until the water came out clear. I know its a lot of work, but my tanks were cloudy for maybe an hour after I put it in and by the next day the water was crystal clear!

I removed the fish (they stayed in a bucket with an air stone) and about 70% of the water, put all the filter media in a bowl of tank water to save the biological good stuff.

I then scooped up all the rock and dumped it in a bucket. When it was gone, I had a thin layer of stuff floating at the bottom. Looks like what comes out of the filter. I just left that in. I then took a half hour break to let it all settle to the bottom.

Once the water cleared up, I took a cup, filled it with sand and slowly dumped it in a cup at a time. There is less disturbance if you dump it right at the bottom. Smoothed it the way I wanted it, then took another half hour break.

Once the sand settled down, I added my plants and rock, etc. Then added the water. I put a bowl in the tank and had the fresh water run into that. That way the pressure from the new water coming in doesn't mess everything up.

When it was all set I put the fish back in. The tank was a bit cloudy, but it was more a fog than the bad cloudiness you can get. And by the next morning, when lights came on it was crystal clear and the fish LOVE it!

When I washed the sand (I bought play sand from Lowels for $2.80 for a 50 pound bag!!) I put a couple scoops in a bowl and swished it over and over until it was clean. Dumped the clean stuff in a bucket and did another, etc. I just took a couple days doing that, taking my time. I live in an apartment so a bucket and hose was not an option for me. I find that doing it that way really cleans the sand good!

So, that is what I did. By saving the filter media stuff and about 30% of the water I avoided a crash. My tanks looked so clean and nice! I will never go back to rock. I love the sand!

My filter intakes are about 6 inches above the sand, so even when my Mbuna's get ornery and send it flying I don't get sand in the filter.

If you don't mind having your rock substrate mixed in with the sand you can leave it all in when you add the new sand.

Hope that helped!

hahaha... so much thread posting failure...

I agree with the northern hardwoods like maple, oak, ash etc. Black willow can be really cool too (not a hard wood though)as it's roots often grow in streambeds and grow around rocks making cool shapes. Wood that's submerged shouldn't really rot. You have to have a lot of o2 for rot.

I've used bamboo in fountains for water courses and if it's submerged it should hold up pretty well.

Should I look for hardwood or softwood like pine. I heard that the pitch from softwood can harm the fish.

Hardwoods have pitch too, just a different composition and less likely to ooze from the wood over time. But then if you chose wood that has had the opportunity to weather and "drift" for several years, the pitch from hardwoods will be insignificant.

I got that from this site: http://www.atchison.com/ArticlesandStories/wood.htm