Which Is The 'whitest' Sand To Use?

[Metermaid]

I am going to convert tank from gravel to sand, I have a blue marine light, white gravel, rocks etc as I like it to look as marine like as possible.

I have done a search on sand here and see that many use Argos playsand but B&Q is also mentioned, just wondering which of the playsands available would be the whitest?

 

[RedeyesUK]

As it happens, I bought some argos sand today. As sand goes, it's pretty white. I guess you can get whiter, but then it starts to look unnatural IMO.

Pic here:

http/i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/redeyes_uk/04bce435.jpg


(Tank on the right is argos sand, tank on the left is some other stuff from LFS)

Looks pretty good - and cleaning time was minimal, too.

 

[backtotropical]

Coral sand is the whitest you will find. It will raise the pH of the water though, which may or may not be beneficial depending on your fish.

Which fish are you keeping?

 

[white-worms]

I think silica sand if I'm right is a man made synthetic sand which is very white and doesn't effect PH or hardness of water

 

[rdd1952]

The corys you have in the smaller tank won't like white sand. They prefer a darker substrate. I assume you are talking about the larger tank though. If you go to a play sand, depending on the pH, GH & KH of your tap water, you may not have the buffering capacity to keep the pH up as high as the inhabitants would like.

 

[Metermaid]

The corys you have in the smaller tank won't like white sand. They prefer a darker substrate. I assume you are talking about the larger tank though. If you go to a play sand, depending on the pH, GH & KH of your tap water, you may not have the buffering capacity to keep the pH up as high as the inhabitants would like.

Umm...I really need to sort my sig out - it is way out of date! I lost all my Mbuna due to a broken heater and I no longer have the small tank set up - so I'm virtually fishless at the moment. My pH is 8.5 which I am trying to lower so I can start again with different inhabitants - I have taken all the rock work out, again in an effort to lower pH. I'm a bit sad to hear that Cory's wouldn't be happy on light sand as I was hoping to have some again.

Thanks for the replies and pics - i went for the Argos playsand, I'm very pleased with the effect!