sand question

[seantheprawn]

hi all im knew here,


well what it is basically, im setting up my 4ft fish tank in a few days, when we move into our new house (which has finally been built and finished, 1 1/2 years of waitng )

And ive been reading all these great threads where people rave about sand for there aquarium, over the regualr gravel.

so ive decided, well id say about 80% decided to get sand.

but what i want to know is, do you have to but like a specific 'aquarium sand' from the lf's, which prolly costs $20 a kilogram or something.

or can u use just like bags of playground sand or you know its still white and nice looking, its just not specific a'quarium sand'

so would that stuff be ok, or while im at it, any other type of sand, whic is cheap and easy to get hold of.


your help would be greatly appreciated

see you all around the forum

 

[gixer]

i have used playsand and its great. 100 times cheaper too.

also..congrats on your new home. starting to build my own in the next month too

 

[OrkyBetta]

I've heard playsand works fine, is a lot cheaper, etc. Just make sure you wash it like heck! It usually isn't as clean as the bagged stuff in LFSs

 

[gixer]

personally i found it a lot cleaner.

still needs a very good rinse though

 

[lady_tanksalot]

i agree i found it much easier to clean and loads cheaper. i bought mine from the local hardware store at about £4 for 10kg. Bargain

 

[seantheprawn]

well thanx for the help guys, i new i could rely on this forum.


bargain bulk sand it is then

 

[BzztYeow]

i bought a 50 lb bag of quikcrete playsand for $3.49 american dollars. While it is a nice substrate- it took me about 3 hours to wash HALF of the bag. There is a LOT of dirt and small crap that causes the water to be very cloudy at 10+ washes.

I got enough for my needs, but i have consistantly heard that sands which are "made" for aquariums require less washing (like tahitian black and moon sand).

My advice would be to try and grab some smaller samples (maybe a large cups worth) and see how long they take to clean. I'm working on this myself, but will be a few weeks before i can post results as im concentrating my funds on getting several new tanks atm.

I know it is worth paying 5 times as much as i did if the cleaning only takes about twenty minutes per bucketful. Of course if you have the time- with nothing better to do, you may just want to grab the cheap stuff.

I REALLY did not enjoy cleaning the playsand available to me- might be better in your area, but that's my experience.

 

[Bloo]

Just be prepared to WASH WASH WASH - and then wash wash wash some more
It will be worth it in the end though
Here's a great pinned topic that The-Wolf did on all the different types of sand.

 

[abstract]

While it is a nice substrate- it took me about 3 hours to wash HALF of the bag.

wow, you're crazy or you got some weird sand...i've tried 3 different types of playsand in the area and it took less than an hour to wash enough sand for my 46G, 20G, and 10G (about a full bag total)...i just used a standard dishpan with about a 6" layer of sand each time.....rinsed it about 5 times (but i dont let the sand settle at all after stirring it up - just pour it all right out even if you are wasting some sand), and dumped it in...

don't be scared away by the rinsing process, it really isn't that bad

 

[BzztYeow]

I'm probably crazy

But i did not let my sand settle more than 2-3 seconds before dumping the milky crud.

I probably got some crappy sand (which is why i included the name brand). I used a 4 gallon bucket with about 4 inches of sand at the bottom (about 1/4- 1/5 of the height of the bucket).

I also used HOT water and high pressure (a shower massage head) to really BEAT the sand around.

 

[Bloo]

Yeah I can completely believe it. I once had some gravel just I took me HOURS to clean and I also used high powered hot water to get rid of all the grime and muck.

 

[abstract]

didn't notice that you mentioned the brand - i used quickcrete in the long run too because i found that the easiest to clean ...then again i wasn't really intent with removing ALL of the dust as the filters clear it up within an hour anyhow (even faster if you toss in an activated carbon insert)

 

[BzztYeow]

Well, i didn't include this because i am not sure if it was just a defective filter or not.

But the FIRST batch of sand i used i only cleaned about 6 times and figured the brand new paguin 150 i had bought would clean out the gunk. The tank was VERY cloudy as i hooked up the filter.

The filter stopped sometime during the night and never worked again. I returned it to my LFS store (don't tell anyone please) and re-washed the sand another ten times before hooking up the new.

I have had no problems since. Of course i don't really know why this filter died, but i have my suspicions (particulate matter damaging the impeller).

 

[abstract]

yea i was kind of concerned the sand particles may do that, but then again thats what filters are made for! and i havent had problems - but good to point out that others may!

 

[Bloo]

Yep - especially with the free floating larger particles. That would most certainly concern me and that's why I'd always wash as well as I possibly could and not leave it to an expensive filter to do (and possibly damage)