Argos Play Sand

James9114 · Apr 13, 2011

I know there have been many debates on wether its worth getting the cheap argos play sand as i have heard both sides of the debate. Some day its really good and well worth the money and others say its really hard to keep clean and clouds up the water. I ask this again because i live in blackpool, uk and have been to every single lfs round there with no look in getting a decent sized bag of sand, any advice welcome

Thanks James

StandbySetting · Apr 13, 2011

Toys'r'us do play sand, it tends to contain less silt as I have found, I'd recommend it over the Argos stuff having tried both, it's £5 for 25KG

Tizer · Apr 13, 2011

If you clean it well, it works perfectly. If you dont put the effort into doing it properly, yes it will cloud up your tank, same goes for any sand you might buy, even the lfs sand.

lilfishie · Apr 13, 2011

i have it in all 3 of my tanks, never had a problem with it clouding after a day or two and i have no problems keeping it clean, plus i have plecos :lol:

matt_storey · Apr 13, 2011

I recommend Homebase playsand.

Note to Mods: is it worth having a sticky on sand? so many times are people being asked about it.

mislisa · Apr 13, 2011

i use silica sand from home hardware (i'm in canada). i'm sure you can find something similar at a hardware store near you. it's usually a nice white colour too, if that's what you were looking for.
i've never used the argos sand though, so i can't say if it would be any good.

James9114 · Apr 13, 2011

thanks guys, i think i'l most likely be getting the toys r us sand as il only need 1 bag of that, thanks again

phishyphil · Apr 13, 2011

James9114 said:
thanks guys, i think i'l most likely be getting the toys r us sand as il only need 1 bag of that, thanks again

BEfore you but mate, take a trip to Tesco pal. I got mine from there, Nice soft childrens play sand. 20 Kg for £2.50!!!! Hardly any silt at all, all i did when i got the stuff was take it to the bath room, open the top of the bag about 5 cm, poured water in from the top, mixed it all around to get all the silt to the top, then using a syphon pump to take out all the excess surface water and silt. And walla. Nice clean sand to use in the tank. Fish love it, especially the plecs, nice when there forraging on the bottom. and the plants seem to like it too. doesnt get disturbed easliy. Id get two bags mate. When you start syphoning you will collect some bits of sand eventually, and eventually u will need to replace some.

Hope this helps

fluttermoth · Apr 13, 2011

I've recently set up a tank with Agros playsand and I really like it. I've only ever had gravel before, and I know it's suddenly become all the rage to have sand, but I can't really understand why we haven't been using it for years; it's brilliant.

As long as you wash it really, really, well (wait for a nice sunny day and wash each bucket at least twice after you think it's already done) it's no problem. It's not hard to keep clean; you soon get the hang of it, you can still use a gravel syphon on it and everything.

Watching the difference in cory's behaviour in sand is a revelation, it really is.

James9114 · Apr 13, 2011

soooo many choices haha, thanks again guys. Think i'l be taking the trip down to the big tesco near me then

trikidy · Apr 13, 2011

Is this the stuff you are on about?

http

/www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3650574/Trail/searchtext%3EPLAY+SAND.htm

Seems a bargain for the price

mattbleasby · Apr 13, 2011

I had never heard of the tesco one... Just the Argos playsand. I was going to pick some up next week i might check out the Tesco one

James9114 · Apr 13, 2011

trikidy said:
Is this the stuff you are on about?

http/www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3650574/Trail/searchtext%3EPLAY+SAND.htm

Seems a bargain for the price

yeh that's the one but think im going to go for the tesco sand as it sound much easier to clean

fluttermoth · Apr 13, 2011

trikidy said:
Is this the stuff you are on about?

http/www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3650574/Trail/searchtext%3EPLAY+SAND.htm

Seems a bargain for the price

That's the stuff I have, yes. As long as you're really ruthless in cleaning it (there's lots of very fine particles that sink quite fast in the bucket, but will cloud up your tank if you don't get it all poured out, it's really easy (I did do it with no fish in though!)

I bought two bags and have done a 48" x 15" tank with 3/4 of a 10l bucket left over for topping up