What Is Sand Anyway ?

[akudewan]

I got me some catfish recently, and I also intend to keep plants in my tank. So I'm thinking of converting to sand. I read the FAQ thread.

I went to some LFS's and asked them for sand. What they showed me wasn't fine powder-like sand, but really small stones, about 1.5 mm in diameter. Can this be considered as sand?

 

[littleimp]

It might have been coral sand that they showed you. If it is stay away or you will have a massive overdose of calcium in your tank.

Coral sand is for marines only and is not actually sand at all but tiny smashed up bits of coral, hence the high calcium levels.

A lot of people on here use playsand, this is a fine grain sand & is available from your local DIY centre. Choose one whaich has no additives & give it a wash & hey presto.

If you are planning on a planted tank mix in a good dose a laterite too as per instructions.

 

[red-devil0602]

i wouldn't think so, sand is sand in apperance just make sure you get non-toxic stuff

 

[sarahw20000]

Just out of interest can you gravel vac sand or does it all get sucked away?

 

[Bloo]

Just out of interest can you gravel vac sand or does it all get sucked away?

not possible in the same way as gravel. It would just fly up. You can only hover an inch above the sandl without getting any sand sucked up.

 

[Lynz781]

Easy to Vac in my opinion. Just keep the syphon tilted so the sand sinks if you happen to suck any up.

 

[Dubby]

I got me some catfish recently, and I also intend to keep plants in my tank. So I'm thinking of converting to sand. I read the FAQ thread.

I went to some LFS's and asked them for sand. What they showed me wasn't fine powder-like sand, but really small stones, about 1.5 mm in diameter. Can this be considered as sand?

Technically speaking, he would still be correct, I suppose.

The classification is

coarse 0.6 - 2.0 mm
medium 0.2 - 0.6 mm
fine 0.06 - 0.2 mm

Anything above 2mm would be called Gravel.

In general a lot of us use Playpit sand or Silver sand for our planted tanks.
EDIT: And its cheaper to buy these from shops like B&Q rather than the LFS.

 

[The-Wolf]

What Is Sand Anyway ?

Sand is an example of a class of materials called granular matter. Sand is a naturally occurring, finely divided rock, comprising particles or granules ranging in size from 0.063 to 2 mm. An individual particle in this range size is termed a sand grain. The next smaller size class in geology is silt: particles below 0.063 mm down to 0.004 mm in size. The next larger size class above sand is gravel, with particles ranging up to 64 mm (see grain size for standards in use).
http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand

HTH

 

[akudewan]

Wow, thats a lot of replies. Thanks guys!

I did a little more digging myself, and found that this is definitely not coral sand. Coral sand is much costlier than the one I saw at my LFS. And it looks different too.

So I'm going to go ahead and convert to sand, I'm sure my corys will thank me