Building Sand?

[J4MES]

Hi everyone,

Round the back of my house there are about 5 bags of this stuff. Because I am setting up a 20g soon, i was wondering if I can use this.

Any thoughts/experiences?

J4MES

 

[mlawson]

Depends what sand it is. If it's silica/silver sand it should be fine.

 

[tropicman]

is silca/silver sand cheaper than original aquatic sand?

 

[rubberdubber]

I used childs play sand, seems fine.

 

[J4MES]

Is that the same as building stuff?

J4MES

 

[rubberdubber]

Not to sure but it was cheap one bag did the bottom of a 4ft tank 2-3 inches and it was only £3.00

 

[The-Wolf]

building sand is absolutly NOT safe for aquaria.
it contains many chemical bonding agents and anti moulds.
DO NOT USE!

 

[Castellop123]

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[tropicman]

where can you buy play sand from
??Garden Centre?

 

[geo7x]

argos does good playsand. I use it for all my tanks

 

[rubberdubber]

Yes got mine there, or toys r us, gamleys but a bit more pricey

 

[three-fingers]

building sand is absolutly NOT safe for aquaria.
it contains many chemical bonding agents and anti moulds.
DO NOT USE!

I used It once for a triops tank, out of 30-50 eggs, only two triops hatched and one died.
Anything else that got transferred into the tank died within 24 hours.
So I'll second that It's not safe...

 

[J4MES]

OK then, so is it definetely safe to use childs playsand?

J4MES

 

[dmarie04]

Everything that I've read says that childs play sand is safe for aquariums so that's what I went and got. I paid less than three dollars for a fifty pound bag. My tank is still cycling, so don't know for a fact that it won't hurt my fish..but the sand has to be safe for children (who put EVERYTHING in their mouths!) so I'm pretty confident it will be ok for my fish.

 

[ghent_3rd]

B & Q for the play sand. to be fair a really nice aquarium sand would probably cost less than £10 for a 20g