River Bed Sand As Substrate

[fatheadminnow]

I live next to a river, and I was wondering if it would be at all possible to use the sand in the river as substrate for my 55 gallon tank, (when I get it...lol)?

Of course I would clean it excessively!

I don't see why it wouldn't work, I mean, it is sand and all.

I am just more worried about the trace chemicals and what not that could be unhealthy for my fish.

Boats do use this river, and they have their exhaust that exits the engine under the water. Would this pose any threat or jeopardize any thing in any way?

Any thoughts towards using river bed sand as substrate?

Thanks!
-FHM

 

[CKutz]

watch out for any critters that crawl out of it!!
other than that i have no idea..there should be some way to sterilize it

 

[fatheadminnow]

watch out for any critters that crawl out of it!!
other than that i have no idea..there should be some way to sterilize it

Yeah...lol...that would not be a good thing to have some exotic little critter!

I was thinking about cleaning it with the bucket thing first, and then adding boiling water to it, and wash it around a lot to kill any bacteria in it?

-FHM

 

[mixmaster jay]

I live next to a river, and I was wondering if it would be at all possible to use the sand in the river as substrate for my 55 gallon tank, (when I get it...lol)?

Of course I would clean it excessively!

I don't see why it wouldn't work, I mean, it is sand and all.

I am just more worried about the trace chemicals and what not that could be unhealthy for my fish.

Boats do use this river, and they have their exhaust that exits the engine under the water. Would this pose any threat or jeopardize any thing in any way?

Any thoughts towards using river bed sand as substrate?

Thanks!
-FHM

Hi i cant really see much of a problem with that as long as it is thoroughly. if there is any black silt as you are lifting the sand out of the river bed be carefull as these could contian trace acids (not sure which) other than that it should be fine if washed properly.
I use play pit sand what gets used in kids sandpits, or silica sand which is a general purpose sand kiln dried which you can get from builders merchants garden centers them sort of places but same applies wash extremly well in hot water.
Hope this helps you
JAY

 

[CKutz]

yea man, i dunno...the pain in the *** of shoveling it out and stuff compared to spending $4 at lowes for a 5lb bag might not be worth it haha

i think i would boil it first though, kill everything, then clean it..

maybe you could add some baking soda while your cleaning it to try and get rid of any acids? i don't know if that's a good idea or not..i'm always worried about getting stuff like that or anything in my tank and how it might affect it.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Yeah, I want to use this sand because it is darker than play sand, but too dark.

-FHM

 

[mixmaster jay]

yea man, i dunno...the pain in the *** of shoveling it out and stuff compared to spending $4 at lowes for a 5lb bag might not be worth it haha

i think i would boil it first though, kill everything, then clean it..

maybe you could add some baking soda while your cleaning it to try and get rid of any acids? i don't know if that's a good idea or not..i'm always worried about getting stuff like that or anything in my tank and how it might affect it.

i wouln't use anything personally other than hot water just in case. I think i will stick to buying it lol. although the critters would be free live food

 

[CKutz]

aw that sounds cool..
i'd like that also i think..
i was between black sand and play sand..i didn't want my fish's colors to look faded, but i also didn't want to pay for the black stuff. so i went with the play sand

 

[fatheadminnow]

aw that sounds cool..
i'd like that also i think..
i was between black sand and play sand..i didn't want my fish's colors to look faded, but i also didn't want to pay for the black stuff. so i went with the play sand

Yeah it was 20 bucks for a 20 pound bag with that black sand in my 29 gallon, and I bought 2 of them!

But I got my taxes back, so that was why I bought it.

Yeah, the river sand is like a brown color, I think it will look really neat personally!

And then I am going to be getting bigger rocks of varying sizes to scatter among the surface of the sand; should look pretty cool IMO!

-FHM

 

[mixmaster jay]

aw that sounds cool..
i'd like that also i think..
i was between black sand and play sand..i didn't want my fish's colors to look faded, but i also didn't want to pay for the black stuff. so i went with the play sand

I went with kiln dried sand (silica sand) but im like you i want darker sand but it would be expensive for me to buy black or any other colour sand i need 75 kilo for my tank and it costs here about £15 for 25 kilo so i wont be doing that lol

 

[fatheadminnow]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, now that we are sorta on the topic..........

I wonder if I could use "seaweed" that grows in the river and put that in my tank? Yes, it is freshwater, just don't know what else to call it other than seaweed.

Any thoughts?

There is a lot of it in the river by me!

-FHM

 

[mixmaster jay]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, now that we are sorta on the topic..........

I wonder if I could use "seaweed" that grows in the river and put that in my tank? Yes, it is freshwater, just don't know what else to call it other than seaweed.

Any thoughts?

There is a lot of it in the river by me!

-FHM

Yeah that would look cool same applies as the sand give it a good wash but with cold water

 

[fatheadminnow]

Yeah it would look cool for sure!

There is a lot of it too!

The seaweed looks like an onion plant, which I have one in my Cichlid tank, and it won't stop growing! lol

-FHM

 

[mixmaster jay]

Yeah it would look cool for sure!

There is a lot of it too!

The seaweed looks like an onion plant, which I have one in my Cichlid tank, and it won't stop growing! lol

-FHM

Iknow you can get aquatic onion plants but they are asian arent they ?

is it a cichlid river you live by then ?

Yeah it would look cool for sure!

There is a lot of it too!

The seaweed looks like an onion plant, which I have one in my Cichlid tank, and it won't stop growing! lol

-FHM

Iknow you can get aquatic onion plants but they are asian arent they ?

is it a cichlid river you live by then ?

ive got some pond oxygenating plant in mine put it in 3 days ago and its grown around 5 inch it grows like mad i cant remember what its called though

 

[fatheadminnow]

Yeah it would look cool for sure!

There is a lot of it too!

The seaweed looks like an onion plant, which I have one in my Cichlid tank, and it won't stop growing! lol

-FHM

Iknow you can get aquatic onion plants but they are asian arent they ?

is it a cichlid river you live by then ?

Yeah it would look cool for sure!

There is a lot of it too!

The seaweed looks like an onion plant, which I have one in my Cichlid tank, and it won't stop growing! lol

-FHM

Iknow you can get aquatic onion plants but they are asian arent they ?

is it a cichlid river you live by then ?

ive got some pond oxygenating plant in mine put it in 3 days ago and its grown around 5 inch it grows like mad i cant remember what its called though

No, I WISH I lived near a Cichlid river, that would be SOOOOOOOOOO neat!

No, I live in Wisconsin, USA, not near any Cichlid lakes/rivers.

-FHM