Sand from Home Depot?

[babyduke]

For Brackish Puffer tank:

Is it a must that I buy the sand sold in petstores vs. the ones at Home Depot which is much cheaper?

 

[rykitten]

Hi babyduke,

I bought the sand in my brackish tank from Home Depot. It works great! Just be sure to wash it very VERY throughly.

 

[LoachLover]

Just wash it REALLY good and it should be fine.

 

[wrs]

some home depots have pre washed sand, i got mine from there and it said pre washed.

 

[Sean_Buckley]

You ever bought pre-washed gravel? Pretty dirty right? Take that times 10 and you've got pre-washed sand. I washed mine for about 3 hours and left the water trickling on it overnight.
Sean

 

[Malawiandude]

yea their referring southdown sand. It is a pain to wash but a majority of salties use it. Here are some pics of mine in the FW tank:

 

[LoachLover]

^Nice looking tank

 

[Inchworm]

Hi babyduke

I'm in the process of converting my tanks to sand now, and I'm using Play Sand from Home Depot to do it. It's quite inexpensive, just $2.87 for a 50 pound bag.

It's also great for use in tanks since it is fine and smooth, which is important since sharp edges can be harmful to fish with barbels, like my corys.

It does take a bit of effort to wash, but I have been doing a few cups at a time in a dishpan, and that seems to be working out well. When I put it in the tanks, it settles and the water clears up pretty quickly. It's worth the effort to get it nice and clean.

I wish I had done this a lot sooner!

 

[LoachLover]

I'm on my way to get some sand from home depot. Let you guys know how it goes.

 

[Discomafia]

I use that stuff as well. The brand I bought at Home Depot was called King play sand and it's a big white bag with a yellow insert and some pics of a shovel and bucket... Just wash it until the water runs clear, then you're set.

 

[MXPX4318]

I used filter sand from a pool supply store, it was like 7 bucks for 50 pounds but it's a bit bigger sand, there's a TON less "extra" stuff in it and barely any fine particles, all I did was put the sand in my tank, fill it half way up, syphon it out, fill it up, syphon it out, then filled it up by putting a plate on top of the sand and pouring the water onto that to keep the sand from getting "blasted" by the stream of water and my tank was never cloudy. so I definetly think it was worth the extra four bucks then the trouble I'd have to go through to clean the play sand. (o yeah and it was easy to fill and empty my tank with my python syphon, I don't think I could live without that thing.

 

[RamJet]

It is a pain to wash but a majority of salties use it.

If you are refering to reefers, I think you would be hard pressed in finding any of us that would put that in our tanks. You must remember that we invest thousands of dollars in or set ups and livestock. Using sand that is not intended to be used in a reef can be very dangerous for the livestock.