Aquarium Sand

[ArcticMonkeys01]

I was just wondering, what type of sand is best? I was going to go for just the £2.99 stuff from argos, seemed okay but then I've heard you can get pockets of stuff, which doesn't sound too good! I'm a bit of a sand newbie as I've had pebbles and such before but I got a new Vicenza 260 tank and I like the look of sand but if it's a matter of paying a bit more for decent sand that's gonna last I'll do that.

I've heard the Silica sand's the best? I'm in the West Midlands so if anyone knows any good places to get it that'd be helpful too .

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[KittyKat]

Normal play sand is fine, to be honest, it is better than any aquarium sand I have used. Yes, all sand should be stirred occasionally. That's just how it is.

 

[ArcticMonkeys01]

Agh that's good then, thank you for that, makes things a bit cheaper! , I wasn't sure if I needed the aquarium sand or what!

 

[BigbruiserAl]

I Have 3 tanks with sand 350L,220L and a 60L all of them are 100% fine. The 350L was the only one which formed little air pockets after a week, i just gave them a poke with wooden spoon and the air pockets wents no harm done.

Tip: When your happy with washing argos sand...wash it one more time then when you think ahhh thats perfect do it again! that is the voice of experince. My 1st tank took 3 days to clear the 2nd tank maybe a day and the 3rd about 2-3 hours learn from my mistakes lol

 

[neonnewbie]

Sorry to sound stupid but how do wash sand?
Ive got a new tank and want to use play sand but want to do it right.

Cheers

NN

 

[KittyKat]

Put some in a bucket, then fill it with water, swirl the sand, drain the water, repeat until water remains clear.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I asked the exact same question about a month ago!

It's actually pretty simple. Fill the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket - about 1 gallon's worth of sand. Put a garden hose into it, and while it's filling, just keep swirling around the sand. The larger bits will sink faster and the lighter bits (dust, etc.) will stay in the water column for longer. Pour out the top water, and repeat. Do this until the water is running out clear. (One step that I took that I believe greatly helped me clean the sand quickly was to pour the sand into the bucket from a height of about 4 feet, with a slight wind blowing. The wind blew a lot of the dust around before it ever even got to the bucket - again the larger bits will fall into the bucket while the lighter bits will be pushed aside by the wind.)

I just added sand to my tank (picture in sig) a few days ago and each gallon of sand only took about 10-15 minutes of swishing - maybe a little less. I also left the tank full of water when I filled it, but poured the sand into place slowly with a small pitcher. This allowed the sand to take a more natural looking place in the tank, and I could easily adjust how much sand was being added to any given spot. This clouded up the water a bit at the end (primarily, because I added large rocks after a while and used the sand to hold them in place, and I was dropping the sand from a much higher distance). The water cleared up by morning (I did rinse out some floss in my filter after about 2 hours, and again in the morning and once more by the following afternoon).

 

[neonnewbie]

Thanks guys

NN

 

[ArcticMonkeys01]

Nice one for tips

 

[boyneburn]

This is the sand that I use & I believe it is also used by Rare Aquatics for their shop tanks.It is from B & Q @ £3.76 a bag.
My link

 

[StandbySetting]

There's no need to stir sand, air pockets are harmless and are actually in most cases anoxic, the bacteria that colonise in them are capable of processing nitrate into nitrogen gas, yes one of their products is Hydrogen Sulphide, but on contact with oxygen it is oxidized instantly to produce water and Sulhur Dioxide, that disgusting smelly gas:

2H[sub]2[/sub]S + 3O[sub]2[/sub] > 2SO[sub]2[/sub] + 2H[sub]2[/sub]0.