Sand?

[Dark_Lenne]

Hi there. I have Sand in my aquarium and my friend has fallen in love with it and my Corys... He has Corys but he also has gravel...

He recently has had to move his fish out of his aquarium and wants to use this time to put sand in his aquarium.

He can't find any aquarium sand locally. Is it OK to use the normal builders sand in an aquarium?

 

[geo7x]

in most, if not all cases, no. Builders sand has different chemicals and stuff in it which helps it to do the job it's made for. A lot of people use playsand from Argos or whathaveyou, you can get a big bag for like £3 or something ridiculous. Just remember to wash it very thoroughly.

 

[Dark_Lenne]

So playsand will be fine? It won't have a adverse effect on his fish or plants etc?

 

[SamUK]

no not at all.


i used the playsand from argos and its great. the bags are bigger than they look too. i only needed 3 for my 6x2x2 tank.


make sure you wash it to get rid of all the silt tho otherwise youll be like me and be stuck with a cloudy tank for a lil while.

 

[Dark_Lenne]

Brilliant. Thanks alot for the info!

 

[andywg]

Just to say, I have silver sand (from a garden centre) in all my tanks, no problem, just avoid those with added bits (like limestone).

 

[samyboy]

just out of curiosity how much did you pay for a large bag of silversand, ive just bought some cory's and im shure they (like me) would much prefer a sand base, the lfs i bought them from was selling silver sand it little 2kg bags for £2.69 ...........think ill pay argos a visit tomorrow

weve got ton's of sand lieing around but its all various building sand and im not taking the risk with the fish

 

[andywg]

I pay around £3.99 for 25kg. That or £2.99, can't remember which.