Advice On Sand For Tank

[judith]

hi there was wondering if any one could advise me, is it ok to use aquarium sand in tropical fish tank or is this just for marine tank?

i was always under the impression that this was just for marine?

if it can be used is there any downfalls to using it with tropical?

 

[therlinger]

there is sand that is appropriate for freshwater fish. Some sand is for marine tanks only, but the ones you can use with freshwater will say so on the package. I don't necessarily think there are any "downfalls" to using it. I think it depends on a number of factors, whether or not you have a planted tank, what kind of fish you are keeping, etc. But, yes, you can you sand in a fresh water tank.

 

[judith]

thanks for the info , is it ok to use sand then in a tank with some plants as well.

or would u recommend just a tank with fish in it

 

[colin1325]

hi i am using argos playsand wash it well a lot of times . do it bit by bit one bag split one bag into about 3 lots , thats what i done . 2.49 a bag i have injected co2 in my tank and in a month or less infact i have plants growing out of the tank the tank is 32 inches deep colin

 

[Luketendo]

Argos playsand is good. I washed it yesterday it didn't take too long.

All I had to do is run cold water in a 3gal bucket through 5kg of the sand and stir and wait for it to settle.

 

[judith]

hi there colin & Luke, the argos sand is not the colour i was after i would like to go for black sand.

my tank is a juwel 190ltr any idea how many bags i would need for my tank?

 

[MrMagoo]

I have a tank that has sand ment for salt water but it is a fresh water tank. It didn't raise my salt level and normally it is cheaper than the fresh water sand. Some people use playground sand but I just don't like the look.

 

[emmag21]

Have a look on www.seapets.co.uk they have a variety of sands

Emma
xox

 

[Matt_northants]

What fish are you planning on keeping? Coral sand like aragonite will raise the pH which is good for hardwater species whereas silica sand and river sand wont. I think the majority of coloured sands are silica sands and therefore wont raise your ph or KH so should be ok for softwater species. All sands dont increase salinity so you dont need to worry about that.

 

[judith]

i will have a look out for the silica sand since it is coloured sand that i want, i have at the minute, a lot of the smaller fish, ie. guppy's, gourami's, neon's some sharks and am getting some bootom workers but don't know if there is specific ones u need for gravel or sand?

i will check the link for the seapets out ta very much.

i don't like the look of playsand either was wanting something which will stand out and look really good.

 

[Luketendo]

i will have a look out for the silica sand since it is coloured sand that i want, i have at the minute, a lot of the smaller fish, ie. guppy's, gourami's, neon's some sharks and am getting some bootom workers but don't know if there is specific ones u need for gravel or sand?

i will check the link for the seapets out ta very much.

i don't like the look of playsand either was wanting something which will stand out and look really good.

It does look really good...

Take a look at my journal.

 

[swrzzzz]

hi there colin & Luke, the argos sand is not the colour i was after i would like to go for black sand.

my tank is a juwel 190ltr any idea how many bags i would need for my tank?

For my 200L I have just used 25kg of sand. It could possibly be a bit deeper but its OK I think

That should give you an idea of what you need

Steve

 

[judith]

i will have a look out for the silica sand since it is coloured sand that i want, i have at the minute, a lot of the smaller fish, ie. guppy's, gourami's, neon's some sharks and am getting some bootom workers but don't know if there is specific ones u need for gravel or sand?

i will check the link for the seapets out ta very much.

i don't like the look of playsand either was wanting something which will stand out and look really good.

It does look really good...

Take a look at my journal.

hi there could u tell me where i can find your journal was looking there but don't know where to look would like to see your tank

hi there colin & Luke, the argos sand is not the colour i was after i would like to go for black sand.

my tank is a juwel 190ltr any idea how many bags i would need for my tank?

For my 200L I have just used 25kg of sand. It could possibly be a bit deeper but its OK I think

That should give you an idea of what you need

Steve

that gives me a better idea of how much i need.

what sand did u use?

 

[zoddy]

Sorry to hijack, but it seemed better to ask here than start a new thread.

I have some beach sand left over from some concreting I was doing - would this be okay as a substrate if I washed it numerous times to wash the salt out? There is no other use for it and it seems a waste to throw it out if I can use it instead of buying more....

 

[Matt_northants]

Dont know about that why not place it in some RO and see how it afffects the water in temps of pH, KH and GH? Also I would probabely boil it to ensure any pathogens are killed off.