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Dominic
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Question! I want to setup and Mbuna species tank with sandy bottom and rocks etc. Aquarium sand is quite expensive. Can I buy Home depot play sand and just rinse it before using it. The home depot said that it's all safe and already washed of harmful stuff and says its safe to use for aquariums and terrariums. I know the play sand won't look as nice but it could save me alot by using play sand.

Any thoughts on this topic.

Thanks

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so at the reccomendation of a Alberta Aquatica member, I bought pool sand from Western pump.

I didn't even rinse it, just fired it in the tank to see how it would work. It was cloudy and a day later it still is a bit, so I would recommend at least rinsing it once, but if you have to 'rinse the hell' out of the play sand, I'd say go with the pool filter sand.

They gave me a bag of it for $11. It looks like normal brownish beach sand. Certainly not fancy, but effective.

How much is the play sand from Home depot?

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Play Sand at HD in Edm is $8 for a 50lb bag. It used to come washed, but the last bag I bought last year was quite dirty

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I am that member above ^^ and I got great results from the pool filter sand. I paid about $14 for mine, but I put it in first and then added water and my water was totally clear. I never did try dumping it in a filled tank, but that's not too bad if it's clearing up in only a day. When I used play sand I rinsed the heck out of it and my tank was still cloudy for 3-4 days.

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i paid 6.99 for 50 lbs of playsand at Home Depot, westmount

had to rinse a bit, but no big deal, and wasn't cloudy when I added it to tank with water already in it. looks great

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Thanks sounds like it's pretty safe. The Sand is a Tan color with specs of some other colour in it as far as I can tell. I've worked with Sandblasting sand before would it not be too fine? Maybe you can buy different grades. Also it worried me a bit cause doesn't it contain additives? I'll look in to the pool sand thing.

Not sure though. At least the "play sand" supposedly has removed the fine particles that can be inhaled and cause damage removed.

Also this so-called "Cichlid Sand" they sell at BigAl's does it come directly from Africa or is it just simulated? Yes I will definetly rinse anything after the last gravel I put in from LFS. I pulled fine sediment out for months after not rising it first. arrg lesson learned.

Edited by Dominic
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  • 7 months later...

i use the home depot play sand (quickrete brand) and really like it. i've bought two bags of the stuff over the past year or so and one bag was nice and clean and required little rinsing. the other bag took a lot more rinsing to get it 'un-silted'. for cheap sand that is easy to find and looks good and natural in your tank, i highly suggest it.

one tip - when adding it to your tank, do it during a water change with the filters turned off. you don't want sand silt in your filter impellers, as it will grind and wreck them. if your tank is cloudy from the silt after you add the sand and get the tank running again, wrap a paper towel around your filter intake and change it out once it is dirty, until the tank is clear again. when refilling the tank with water, put a dinner plate down on the sand and pour the new water onto that to avoid kicking sand everywhere.

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I have used sand in all but 2 of my tanks for many many years for a couple of what I thought were very good reasons - simulates the environment where the fish actually come from and a lot of mine are wild caughts, much easier to clean as the "gunk" stays on top, fish love to play and sift through it and it is not all that bad looking in the tank.

On the downside you have to take precautions with your filter intakes or you will be replacing shafts and impellers constantly and if you have live plants they apparently won't do as well as gravel from what I hear as the sand compacts too tightly for the roots. I've never had to worry about that as I don't have live plants.

I've always bought mine from Burnco - 40 kg. bags for $6.25 (3 years ago was the last purchase so likely a little higher now) and the medium grain size - think it is #7.

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i have no trouble at all growing plants in play sand - anubias, crypts, swords, crinums, etc. i don't have mts to stir up the sand, but i do 'chop' it with a plastic card now and then during a water change to keep it from compacting too much. my bn pleco uproots the odd plant, but she used to do the same in another planted tank with gravel sometimes.

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