RD. Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 (edited) I was over at Ryan's house today checking out his new tank, and after seeing his Target play sand, I will never be using the Target brand pool filter sand again. Wow, what a difference in both the look, and the price. $4 for 55 pounds, vs $20 for 50 pounds. I now take everything back that I have ever said about using Target PFS. The play sand has a more natural grain size (assorted, with some larger grains compared to the PFS) and doesn't appear to contain any clay whatsoever, and needs no rinsing. The bag actually states "washed & sterilzed". Glad I saw it before filling my 125 ........ Edited January 28, 2006 by RD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9outfit Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 Since I'll be filling a tank in the near future where can one get this play sand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc_Polit Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 That's the same sand I always used Neil. Awesome stuff. Looks natural and tank clears fast after filling. No problems with clouding when stirred up either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted January 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 Rita - Home Depot, Totem, etc. Well sure Brad, tell me that 3 yrs later. :bang1: :P I can't believe how much nicer the grain size is, and how freakin clean it is compared to some of the play sands that I've seen in the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishManTy Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 I've been using it for years, its great stuff and the price is definately right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc_Polit Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 Well sure Brad, tell me that 3 yrs later. :bang1: :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperVillain Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 Any advice for converting from gravel to sand? While, ummm keeping the fishies in the tank? Is that possible or just a pipe dream? -ham- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pufferpack Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 What I did when converting from gravel to sand was remove 1/2 the gravel, push the rest to one side, add 1/2 the sand to the now bare side, after 2 weeks I removed the rest of the gravel and added the other half of the sand. I have heard of other folks who moved all the gravel to a nylon and hung it in the back of the tank (to keep the bacteria in the tank) and added their sand to the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted January 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 I removed all of my gravel, and added sand, on the same day, with all of my fish in the tank. I also had 2 AC 500's on this 55 gallon tank when I did that, so unless you have a lot of bio media in your tank you might experience a mini cycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 PirahanaMan had a good idea for me.....I had some 3" tubing and a big funnel. The sand didn't stir up much after the first funnel load, but this was a bare bottom tank it went into... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCallele Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 Depending on how deep your existing bed is, how much crud is down there, etc. I would advise being quite careful (from bad personal experience) when removing an existing bed with fish in the tank. The best technique that I have seen is to have a large diameter hose and suck the gravel and the accumulated waste out at the same time. This greatly reduces the chance of the mini-cycle mentioned earlier being caused by the removal process. It may still happen with the new bed though. I also recommend only a partial change at a time if the bed is contributing in any appreciable way to the bio-filtering. That said, if you have numerous large filters going at the same time, they can probably take up any surge in the load. When putting the new sand in place, you might want to build it up over a few days to allow some crud to get a little deeper into the sand. Or, stir gently over the first week or two. Now, if you have aquatic bulldozers like me, well the last suggestion is just something you should ignore. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap'n Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 I agree that the Target play sand is great in a tank, I've been using it for years. But I wouldn't put too much trust in the "washed and rinsed" tag. I would still recommend a good stir and rinse in a bucket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 But I wouldn't put too much trust in the "washed and rinsed" tag. I bought a bag of target playsand last year from home depot. It said "washed" on the side but was still very dirty and dusty. I wouldnt' have been able to put it into the tank the way it was out of the bag. Maybe they have made it cleaner since then but it sure didn't look "washed" when i bought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
safety4fire Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 I purchase sand direct from Target in Mornville, but thats in bulk for sand blasting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted January 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 Now that I've found the PERFECT sand substrate, I can't seem to find any in Red Deer, and I still need two more bags. :mad: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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