Kiddies Play Sand

[craig855s]

Heard people talking about using argos play sand for their tanks and saying its cheap and safe to use insead of paying a LOT more for the LFS stuff...but then read one topic where someone was slating it saying it gave them problems in the tank and its worth buying the proper aquarium stuff...

Does anyone know the exact pros and cons of each type.. and what experiences have you had with play sand?

 

[DannyBlackbourn]

I don't know...

But I will watch this topic as it is something I am interested in considering for my next tank...

But like yourself, I have seen a few suggestions of the Argos sand...

 

[OohFeeshy]

The only slight issue is the silt that comes with it. Either wash it really, really well before you start, or shove it in and get rid of the muck as you go.

 

[arobinson1984]

As long as the argos play sand is washed properly then it is absolutely fine.

You should put some sand in a bucket, fill the bucket with water from hosepipe and swill the sand with your hand to stir up any mucky bits. Let the water overflow from the bucket and keep swilling until the water overflowing from the bucket is clear.

Empty bucket into tank and repeat with next lot of sand

I think I've read about people using a pillowcase to wash it as well by putting sand in an old pillowcase and running water through it

Andy

 

[greenscooby]

The only complaint i've heard of is learning how to use your gravel vac to pick up the waste and not take half the sand with it, you've just got to hovver it at just the right height.

Apart from that i've heard nothing but good things about it.


Mark.

 

[arobinson1984]

To clean sand even easier, remove the gravel vac section and just hover the thin tube above the sand

Andy

 

[craig855s]

How much would i need for a Juwel rio 240 (5Ft)

Ive read that toysRus do 25KG bags for £5..would one of those be enough,or should i go with 2 x argos bags (which are 15KG are they not?)

Any excess i can put in my sons water and sand table thing so id rather get more than i need..and its worth mentioning i plan on having some fertilizing substrate below the sand..

 

[JenCliBee]

Thetoys are us sand is ment to be a lot less silty, will still need washing but apparently far from as much, i think for a 240 you will need probably 2.5 bags of argos and 1.5 bags of Toys are us... but i guess it would depend on how deep you actually want the substrate, i used 2 bags from argos for my 180 and it was a nice depth i think that half a bag extra would be just enough for the 240

The rio240 is 4ft isnt it? not 5 foot

 

[craig855s]

Not too sure on what the tank is at the minute, bought it from ebay under the impression its a 240 but its mahoosive so i think its 5ft. ill measure it later and go into the calculator.

 

[Rooster]

Argos PS in ALL my tanks.... no problems whatsoever Recommend it to anyone.... only reason folk get "muddy water" is laziness... All I do is put half a bucket of sand under the kitchen window (errr, outside !) and put the hosepipe out the window - into the bucket, so the hose touches the bottom of the bucket... and turn on the cold tap !
20 mins later, all the cr@p has floated off the surface, and down the drain.... the sand is now crystal clear, and will simply sink in the tank when you pour it in.
Dont forget to turn off the filter before adding sand... you dont want a single grain in the filter !

This process is dead easy, and WILL need to be done with "real" fish shop sand anyway... there's nothing special about the LFS stuff !

 

[jmkgreen]

Argos PS in my 4x2 too - rinsed in a bucket (several bucket loads to clean 2x bags). Am tempted to add a third to bulk it up. Might see if the fish reach the glass bottom first...