play sand or silica sand?

[Paul_MTS]

I fancy having sand in my 6ft to be tank and have seen the local agregates pirce list and there's fine dried silica sand and play sand.

What one should I go for? it wil be planted and have quite a few botom feeders!!

 

[CFC]

Personally i preffer the silica sand which is a nice dark colour, the play sand is very light in colour and tends to reflect light which washes the colours out of the fish.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Oki dokey,

what else do I have to do when i have sand?

I hear you have to stir it up so it doesn't compress, how often should this be done? and won't this disturb plant roots?

 

[parker313]

I'm sure you know to rinse it REALLY well to help avoid the worst of the cloudiness. I used regular play sand and I like the way it looks in my tank. I have a simple dark background so wanted a lighter substrate to contrast with it more. I *think* I read that if you have plants you don't have to worry about stirring the substrate b/c the roots keep the pockets of anaerobic gasses from forming, but I could be wrong in that.

I just stir mine with a chopstick at water changes - not really even stir, just drag the chopstick through the sand.

 

[Paul_MTS]

don't remind that i have to wash it!, I'ved washed about 100kg of substrate in the past few weeks, 2 new bags for my tanks then 3 bags for the pond another bag that i washed and didn't use

That would be good if it is correct!

 

[kev]

I have play sand - and I recently changed it over from the gravel substrate

To rinse it - fill a bucket about a 1/4 of the way up with sand then put a hose in the bottom and turn on the tap (quite high pressure if possible) leave the water to over flow from the top of the bucket - (move it around and it will water your garden at the same time - Do this for as long as you can bear and the water should be clear (I did mine for about 10 minutes per bucket) - YOu could also do it in the bath if you haven't got a large garden that will be flooded

Next - Try to put the sand in gently - Dropping it in will cause it to go cloudy no matter how much you washed it - Its not easy as it drops of your hand when putting it in (unless your starting a new tank then you can put it in first )

A well planted tank shouldn't need sterring (SP??) except for any large open areas - But my bottom feed dig around any way. - I just put some algea wafers just under the sand and they dig it out! - Same with frozen blood worm.

I've noticed how bright my tank looks now I have light sand - but its down to preference - My fish colours also look nice and bright - My zebra danios - Who I assumed where black and silver - Turn out to be a very nice blue and silver when the light catched them correctly!!

 

[parker313]

don't remind that i have to wash it!, I'ved washed about 100kg of substrate in the past few weeks, 2 new bags for my tanks then 3 bags for the pond another bag that i washed and didn't use

That would be good if it is correct!

I know what you mean - I was going crazy rinsing sand just to get enough for my 46g tank

 

[Paul_MTS]

Yeh the tank wil be new, I'ved been putting it in a bucket then washing the hose about in there for a bit.

I think I'll go with silica sand as I prefer slightly darker colours.

Good plan with the hiding food, will stop them from being lazy aswell!!

Cheers for the help, I'll get the sand sometime in the next week or so to get it washed and ready.Should I make it any deaper/shallower than normal? (7cm is normal to me!!).

Yer it's back breaking work aswell!!! heavy gravel thats soaked with water!!! not a good mix.

How many bags should i get to cover 6ft? they will be the usualy size bags that you would get gravel or cobbles in from a garden centre!!.

 

[Da_Oz]

I have sand blashing sand in my 55g. It is about 8mm on ave and I like it better than play sand. Play sand is very lite so tends to could takes more with bottom feeders and PWC's. I have had both in the past and just like the little bit bigger sand myself.

 

[Paul_MTS]

I have sand blashing sand in my 55g. It is about 8mm on ave and I like it better than play sand. Play sand is very lite so tends to could takes more with bottom feeders and PWC's. I have had both in the past and just like the little bit bigger sand myself.

8mm is quoite big for sand...thats more like gravel!!

I have a course sand/fine subtrate in my other 2 biggish tank and those particals are 2-3mm

 

[rvm]

Paul I have decked out my new 150g with black sand. It wasn't cheap at £15 a bag, but I bought 2 bags and found I only needed 1. It looks superb especially with light coloured fish, and my new Oscar really stands out. With a 6x2x2 (If that is the tank you're looking at doing) I would say youd need 2 bags. It also depends on how thick you want it.
I think that if you have the sand at a certain depth (possibly less than an inch if I remember, maybe someone else can clarify) you don't need to worry about the anaerobic bacteria, but I may be wrong, can someone clarify this for me?

 

[Paul_MTS]

well the substrate from my other tanks has cost 17 a bag because i had to go to the LFS for that but when buying from agregates and garden centres it suddenyl becomes alot cheaper!!.

Play sand is 1.99 a bag and silica is 2.99 a bag!!

 

[CFC]

I know this is going to sound terrible but i never wash substrate before adding it to a tank ) There is a good reason behind this and that is that by washing the substrate you also wash out many of the nutrients which are vital for plants to grow.
All i do is wet the substrate so that all the fine particals stick to the larger ones and then dump it into the empty tank, then when i start filling the tank with water i gently pour the water onto a large dinner plate which i position on top of the substrate to defuse the waters fall. The result is crystal clear water as the substrate has not been disturbed at all

 

[rollntider]

but one thing to note about play sand is it still has clay dirt in it. I used to work for a pool company and once when we were going to change the sand in a pool filter, the supply house was out of pool filter sand. so my boss went to a hardware store and bought play sand since all we needed was sand. After all they look the same right? well after we changed it out and started running the filter. red clay coated the bottome of the pool. It took us a week to get every bit out. so if you dont rinse the play sand, you will have some fun cleaning your tank. I would use pool filter sand or somthing like it that doesnt have the red clay.

 

[fishy business]

Is it ok to use sand from the beach, im going to put a container in my tank and put a few plants in due to undergravel filter, if i wash the sand alot to get the salt out is it ok ?