Any Experiance With Using Crayola Colored Play Sand In Tank?

[wodesorel]

I know this sounds silly, but I really want to do a blue sand tank. Our living room is cheddar cheese orange/yellow and I don't think a natural colored stone or sand will work!

Problem is that the only place left to buy aquarium supplies in the area only sells Top Fin, and from personal experiance I will never use that stuff again. My other tanks were all set up when another store was still open and selling Estes products.

For some reason I was thinking about this blue Crayola play sand I saw over at Walmart, and I decided to google it. All of the stuff I found was from this time last year. A few people said that after a few weeks (one person said 7 months) with the sand in their tank all their fish were fine. Can't find any reference to anything recent to see if this is still the case! Couldn't find a single references to it harming fish, though.

I have a gourami that I bought as a dwarf as is slowly approaching 7 inches...... It's eaten everything other than the bottom dwellers in the bedroom tank and I'm not too fond of it. It's going to go live in the new 30 gallon in the living room. By itself...... Until I figure out what other fish it can't eat..... Anyways, I'm thinking of trying this blue Crayola sand so at least the tank looks outstanding.

Was wondering if anyone knew anything about it? The company wasn't authorized to do any type of animal testing so can't say if it's safe for fish, but it is kid and infant safe, and completely non-toxic. The color also does not run. Any thoughts?

 

[indigoj]

Well other play sand is safe but my concern would be what dyes were used to colour it. If it is the same stuff they use to colour the aquarium gravel and sand that is available in many colours it would probably be ok.

Don't 'Roman' do blue sand though anyway? They definitely do blue gravel.

Can you get a pic of your gourami or describe it in detail as it doesn't sound like a dwarf gourami.

 

[minxfishy]

We have a similar sand over here in the UK, its childrens playsand, in many colours, Ive persoanlly used it (a nice purple sand ) and didnt have any problems with it, it does kinda bubble strangly when first washed, kinda like beads of sand over the surface, but these so break down eventually. I would say though that it needs an awful lot more washing than normal playsand, so be aware of that.

 

[wodesorel]

minxfishy, from what I understand the sand is meant to be "waterproof" so that's why it's so hard to get rid of the bubbles. I switched my main tank from gravel to sand last year, so I do know a bit of what to expect. (two hours of rinsing later....) Thank you for the info, I think I will be trying it now!

indigoj, I'm pretty sure the gourami I have is an opaline. I bought it (him?) as a slip of a baby around 1 inch long having been told it was a blue dwarf gourami. And then it just kept growing and growing and growing. The 20 gal is too small, and he's eaten just about everything he can catch. The only things that have been safe are the clown pleco and the kuhli loaches. Even my giant snail has been on the menu. We managed to get this 30 gal for next to nothing, and now that the living room has been painted he'll be getting moved as soon as we make the tank stand a wee more sturdy. I learned my lesson about double-checking species BEFORE I buy, although I will probably steer clear of labrynth fish in the future, asides from my kitchen bettas of course.

 

[indigoj]

Get him/her a mate. My opalines were not aggressive at all when kept as a pair. Then yuo should be able to have a nice colourful 30g tank with not too much trouble.

 

[wodesorel]

Um, how do you tell a male from a female? I don't know much about gourami - I got this one on a whim last summer because I have always loved my bettas but had never been able to keep them alive in my large tank. The little piglets always overate to the point where they burst - quite litteraly. It was too hard to control their food ration when trying to feed 9 hungry kuhli loaches. Well, that and the two I lost to the idiots trying to swallow full-grown ghost shrimp whole. Bettas get only tanks now.

The only store within about an hour's drive is a corporate store, so no asking the employees for help. That's how I ended up in this mess. We were there this afternoon and all the gourami they sell are labeled "male" and look pretty much identical. The employees also won't go through the trouble of catching a specific fish. (Although I did get lucky the one day and THEY let ME go into a full kuhli tank to fish out a pangio anguillaris I saw swimming around. I doubt that I would get that lucky again.)

If they're relatively easy to sex, I would certainly keep my eyes peeled for a female that managed to get through. However if they're as hard to tell apart as a female betta from a plakat male then no go. Two of the last four "females" I was completely sure were females ended up growing into HUGE plakat males.

Also, since my male is severely territorial (will slam into the glass to try and attack my cats.... and me on occasion), would introducing them be a challenge?