How Much Sand?

[Paul70]

Hi all.
Quick question. I am going to change my substrate from coarse gravel to argos playsand. My question is how many 15kg bags will I need?

My tank is 81cm x 34cm and I gather it needs to be around 3cm deep?

 

[Jamepsss]

Hi all.
Quick question. I am going to change my substrate from coarse gravel to argos playsand. My question is how many 15kg bags will I need?

My tank is 81cm x 34cm and I gather it needs to be around 3cm deep?

One might be enough but i'd get two to be on the safe side. It's good to have some left over for topping up.

 

[Paul70]

was going to reserve 2 bags at argos but then thought I would check out b & q. I found this
B & Q fine grade playsand

It is a 25kg bag for £4.48 which is cheaper than 2 bags from argos and it states it is washed ( quite how well I don't know!).

Your thoughts please. Has anyone else used the playsand from b and q for their tank?

 

[Aqua Tom]

If it says safe for children then its safe for fish. All playsand is apparantly washed to remove chemicals, this just means kids can put it in there mouths without fear of mutating.

You still need to wash it to get rid of all the dust that is in there, this will keep cloudyness to a minimum when you first put it in the tank.

 

[Paul70]

thanks aqua tom.

will go get some and see how it is. Good advice about washing. cheers.

 

[Warehouse]

Hi Paul, I have just changed my own tanks gravel for sand, and used the argos play sand. My tank is 125 litres with a length and width of 80cm x 30cm. I used almost 2 bags to get to a depth of 1.5 inches or 4cm. Now trust me on this, my first wash of each load of sand produced some absolutely filthy water. It may be safe for kids but it most certainly isn't clean. For each 25kg bag I put about a quarter of a bag into a bucket, then filled halfway with warm water and moved the sand around vigorously with my hands. When all the sand is suspended in the water you can stop and wait for 20 seconds as the sand settles, then carefully tip out the water. After about 6 of these you will clearly see the sand settling as the water is fairly clear by then. That's when I added it to the tank.

 

[Joshwainwright]

was going to reserve 2 bags at argos but then thought I would check out b & q. I found this
B & Q fine grade playsand

It is a 25kg bag for £4.48 which is cheaper than 2 bags from argos and it states it is washed ( quite how well I don't know!).

Your thoughts please. Has anyone else used the playsand from b and q for their tank?

My local Argos was out of stock when I bought my sand so the B&Q stuff is what I got. It's great sand however just like the Argos stuff, it needs a quick wash before use. It's very soft under water and I have been very pleased with the product.

 

[guppi]

I was told BQ sand was alot dirter than Argos play sand with more foreign bit in it. 1 bag of Argos sand filled my take up, but like Jamepss said you will need to top-up at some time.

 

[Joshwainwright]

I was told BQ sand was alot dirter than Argos play sand with more foreign bit in it. 1 bag of Argos sand filled my take up, but like Jamepss said you will need to top-up at some time.

The B&Q sand did make the water in the bucket rather cloudy when I cleaned it however once I got it in the tank and let it settle it became perfect. It's not the whitest sand ever but personally I think white sand seems too fake.

 

[weezawoo]

I was told the B&Q has a darker look to it than the argos but I haven't had the chance to compare! Personaly I think the Argos stuff is good

 

[Paul70]

Well I bought the B and Q sand and my opinion is this.

Very dirty and took quite a while to wash properly. Used the bucket and hosepipe method and washed each half bucket around 5 times. Initially there was lots of detergent scum on the surface of the water but after 5 mins of running water it soon cleared up to run as clear as I could get it. There were quite a lot of foreign objects in it (like guppi states) with some quite large black crystals which cooperatively settled on the top of the sand on draining and seemed to drain out the bucket before the actual sand did which was good.

Overall I am quite pleased with the initial result (although I have got it in the neck from the wife cos she wanted pale pale sand lol!). I am going to try to attach a photograph of the result before I turned the filter back on (had to turn it off cos when I removed the old substrate and stones the water level dropped below the filter intake level and didn't want to burn the motor out).


Having said that I washed all my sand first so it actually was only off for around an hour. The tank is only 4 days into a fishless cycle so I'm not too concerned about negative bacteria effects etc at this time.

I also need to change my wool pre-filter in 2 days so I'm hoping that much of the large rubbish has been filtered out before then.

sorry the pic is a bit blurred. Had to use my phone camera

 

[Joshwainwright]

As you've found out, the B&Q sand is good once it's washed. Also, as I've said before; I prefer to have a darker looking sand as bright white sand seems to fake. I like to go for a more natural look that isn't so bright that it shocks you. The cloudiness cleared up within a day or so for me but I did add some Filter Aid to help.

Good work by the way.

 

[dutto73]

Well I bought the B and Q sand and my opinion is this.

Very dirty and took quite a while to wash properly. Used the bucket and hosepipe method and washed each half bucket around 5 times. Initially there was lots of detergent scum on the surface of the water but after 5 mins of running water it soon cleared up to run as clear as I could get it. There were quite a lot of foreign objects in it (like guppi states) with some quite large black crystals which cooperatively settled on the top of the sand on draining and seemed to drain out the bucket before the actual sand did which was good.

Overall I am quite pleased with the initial result (although I have got it in the neck from the wife cos she wanted pale pale sand lol!). I am going to try to attach a photograph of the result before I turned the filter back on (had to turn it off cos when I removed the old substrate and stones the water level dropped below the filter intake level and didn't want to burn the motor out).


Having said that I washed all my sand first so it actually was only off for around an hour. The tank is only 4 days into a fishless cycle so I'm not too concerned about negative bacteria effects etc at this time.

I also need to change my wool pre-filter in 2 days so I'm hoping that much of the large rubbish has been filtered out before then.

sorry the pic is a bit blurred. Had to use my phone camera

hi paul good luck with the sand, i changed to sand 3 months ago and now have problems with the fish waste theres a pic of my tank on the "cleaning"topic which i have had some good advice on...enjoy your time on here, i will...glenn