Children's Play Sand

[stevo_gti]

is it safe to use children's play sand as a substrate in my fish tank? preferably children's white play sand as its alot cheaper that the carib white sand that i worked out will cost me £80 for a 3 inch layer in my 4 ft tank

does anyone have any pictures of their tank with sand in i coud see? white or normal

cheers for any help,,, mark

 

[jonnyf84]

i used the play sand from argos for 3 or 4 months, its a nice look but didn't seem to hold plants very well, i took it out because it got too messy too quick, although i was slightly over stocked at the time. Its cheap as chips so theres no harm in giving it a go. I have no pics i'm afraid.

 

[stevo_gti]

cheers johnny, i heard it was cleaner and easier to keep clean that gravel, im not sure what colour to go for but i also not made up my mind to stay tropical or move onto ciclids in my 4ft so maybe white for the ciclids and natural for tropical

 

[doresy]

Yup, got sand in my 2 tanks, pics in sig.

Argos playsand, well washed before use. No problem with planting or cleaning. I know some do have a problem with vaccing but I don't.....guess that makes me a bit clever then

Cory do most of the work at night, they turn the whole lot over and it's like virgin snow in the morning

 

[malakye]

I used playsand in my tank, heres pictures for you. It cost me £7.50 for a bag I got it from homebase and my tank is 4ft. It can be awkward to vac but once you get the hang of it its fine, my frogs, shrimp and corys love the sand. I put it into a big bucket in the bath with the hose running through it for about 5/6 hours to clean it, the extra effort to clean it and make sure it was running clear was definately worth it because I never suffered from a cloudy tank.

 

[seanie112]

i brought playsand from argos last wk 4 bags of 15kg price at £2.39 each not mad price not used it yet been told good for most fish

i got it for my mbuna tank that willbe set up next year plus got it for my L182 bristlenose tank that i have corys in

 

[england]

5/6 hours to rinse it through
seriously,, was thinking of going to argos tommorow to get some sand but that long to wash it, wow how much water would that be

 

[malakye]

You probably could get away with cleaning it for much less than that but I was moving my livingroom about and moving the tank so thats why I left the water running through it for so long.

 

[england]

so how do you wash it, in a bucket and shove hose down into base and turn on, or fill it wash it around then drain and repeat?

 

[jonnyf84]

sand is deffinately harder to keep clean than gravel, i had corys with mine but they dont eat #### unfortunately so it just sits on top of the sand and doesn't look very nice.

 

[petertr]

sand is deffinately harder to keep clean than gravel, i had corys with mine but they dont eat #### unfortunately so it just sits on top of the sand and doesn't look very nice.

I found that too.

Went back to gravel

 

[doresy]

sand is deffinately harder to keep clean than gravel, i had corys with mine but they dont eat #### unfortunately so it just sits on top of the sand and doesn't look very nice.

No thet don't eat the poo they just stir it up so it gets suspended in the water and ends up in the filter

 

[spesh]

Thats argos play sand. I like it and as above my cory's keep it pretty clean, they bump the poo up into the water then it seems to get sucked into the filter

 

[doresy]

Thats argos play sand. I like it and as above my cory's keep it pretty clean, they bump the poo up into the water then it seems to get sucked into the filter

Oh it's not just me then I thought I had some sort of Super-Cory

*edit* Love the tank BTW

 

[ccskitten]

I had a problem with hair algea growing on my sand. I also personally found it quite difficult to clean and couldn't stand seeing it dirty so I changed to gravel.

I do think sand looks better though (when it is clean!). Some of the tanks on this tread look amazing. If I ever had sand again I would defo get a cory to stir it up.

Mine was also Argos Play sand and plants stayed in fine.