what kind of sand to buy?

[Loveless]

well I have settled on sand, I went to the store today they had this reef sand and aragonite sand... gee what should I get? I also read something about don't get crushed corel sand, something about it doesn't go well in fresh water so that means argaonite, an identical mineral shouldn't be used right?

please advise

 

[Fishsmurf]

Loveless,

Save yourself a fortune, if you have settled on sand as your substrate then go to a large hardware store & buy either play pit sand or sand blasting sand. Both are as good as the stuff you will get from your LFS and will be a quarter of the price. The only down side is it tends to be a bit dirtier so takes a bit longer to rinse / clean the before you can add it to the tank.....

HTH

 

[Laughncat]

I also read something about don't get crushed corel sand, something about it doesn't go well in fresh water...

Actually, I would say that depends on what type of fish your planning on putting in the tank. The reason soem of the texts you've been reading advise against crushed coral sand is because coral will raise the ph of tank water. Some times just a little, some times a lot. If your fish prefer their water soft instead of hard, the higher ph may place undue stress upon them.

I have a sand tank (orginally set it up for corys who never actually got moved from their old tank ) and it has crushed coral sand in it. This tank has the highest ph of all my tanks and the ph tends to stay rock steady to boot (knocks on driftwood for luck ). It's on average two to three points higher then any of my other tanks. The celebese I have in there happen to like hard water so it's good for them. Unfortunately, the higher PH also means that I also I can't add any of the loaches I really want because they all prefer a much lower PH then what I have...d'oh

Ehh...anyway, I'm rambling. I hope I'm making sense. I've had the flu for the last threee days and I'm now just trying to stay awake at work. I miss my bed

Anyways, If this doesn't answer your question, just wait for the almighty EELZOR(tm), king of the beaches and lord of all that is sandy, to stop by and answer your questions

 

[Laughncat]

Save yourself a fortune, if you have settled on sand as your substrate then go to a large hardware store & buy either play pit sand or sand blasting sand. Both are as good as the stuff you will get from your LFS and will be a quarter of the price.

GEh! I can relate to that! Two five pound bags at my LFS cost me twenty bucks! ACK!

 

[Eelzor]

Anyways, If this doesn't answer your question, just wait for the almighty EELZOR™, king of the beaches and lord of all that is sandy, to stop by and answer your questions

LOL Laughncat!! That's pretty much me in a handfull!

well I have settled on sand, I went to the store today they had this reef sand and aragonite sand... gee what should I get? I also read something about don't get crushed corel sand, something about it doesn't go well in fresh water so that means argaonite, an identical mineral shouldn't be used right?

please advise

I think yours is a freshwater tank so I will explain all, and the clouds will clear from the heavens.

What you said about crushed corel sand, is definatly true. You should not put it in because it raises the pH level significantly high and some fish don't take it. Although others may, it's just a lot better to keep your hands away from it. I reccommend a fine soft sand that you can buy at hardware stores like smurfie boi said a few posts up there. I got my sand for cheap, called "Eel Sand" for $10 and it was great, but it was my luck. Check out the hardware stores for good and if you have more questions, I recommend checking this link out - Sand Vs. Gravel

P.S - Feel free to ask questions there too.

 

[Loveless]

I'll want to check out home depot and petco before I buy.

If I decided to buy from petco... what am I suppose to look for and watch out for when I buy? I don't want to accidently buy a salty sand.

 

[Eelzor]

If I decided to buy from petco... what am I suppose to look for and watch out for when I buy? I don't want to accidently buy a salty sand.

I am not sure what sands petco sell, because my outlet had one and only one great sand. We don't have a petco here too. But the store I went to get mine only had one sand, and it was made by the store. I tried to look on the petco website but couldn't find anything on aquarium sand, just reptile sand. I would still check out the hardware store and I quote smurfs earlier quote,

Save yourself a fortune, if you have settled on sand as your substrate then go to a large hardware store & buy either play pit sand or sand blasting sand.

This is true Loveless and it is probably the best and cheapest way to go. But if oyu still want to go the petco way, see if you can get me a website showing it, or if you get the names as well. I hope I can help you more on this topic, but for such to happen, you must help me.

 

[thecichlidaddict]

Hi,

I'd like to reassure you that most sand you come across will work fine including:

Play sand
Beach sand
Blasting sand
Construction sand
Concrete sand
River sand
Pool filter sand
Silica sand
etc. etc.

All can be found cheap, but make sure you rinse whatever you buy very, very well. You can't rinse it too much.

 

[Eelzor]

Yes, something else with watching out on sand is that if you constantly rub the sand together it just grains in smaller and it gets annoying. A similar thing happens with activated carbon and gravel.

 

[Loveless]

got a 50lb bag that cost 4.50$ from home depot. it's play sand made from crushed marbles

I spent 20 min washing and I thought I've done a good job then now this! musky water!

I am thinking about doing a 50% water change to clear it up, why? it's been 4hrs since I poured the sand in and it has not settled

 

[thecichlidaddict]

Loveless

Patience, you could rinse sand out for an hour and it will still cloud the tank. It will settle, it may take a few days even, but it will. For now water changes will help, and rinsing out any finer filter floss too. It won't harm fish either, the cloudiness.

 

[JAYJT]

I recomend getting your sand from a d i y store its cheaper, or even use that for the fisrt few inches then put a top layer of fine sand ontop of that...

 

[Eelzor]

I had that once and it never seemed to settle, but I did a 50% water change and it got clean again. I recently did a 30% water change and it became extremely clean! But my sand immediatly settle when I first go it.

 

[Loveless]

did a 80% water change

 

[Opcn]

great tank.

What I would recomend doing (for rinsing sand) would be cutting thebottom off of a 2 leater bottle and duct taping a bit of cotton on the bottom. Then makink an adapter between a hose and the neck of the bottle (again duct tape) finally you can run water right through it you wont lose any sand and it wont be ground into oblivion plus you can reuse the entire thing.

Opcn