Aquarium sand or play sand?

SinCrisis

I had the same issue when I started switching to sand for my tanks. In my research, i honestly found no reason play sand could not be used. BEACH SAND, cannot be used as it often has too much calcium in it, but play sand is fine.

I ended up with aquarium sand though because it comes in smaller bags and I didn't have enough tanks to utilize 40lbs of sand (smallest my home depot had). This might be a concern for you if you do not have many tanks or large tanks to fully use the sand and might eliminate your options.

AbbeysDad

I had some extra pool filter sand on hand so that's what I used and it's working just fine.

Homer16

I couldnt find this sand

QUIKRETE 25KG Playsand - Lowe's Canada

So was going to use King Play Sand. The bag said Dried Beach sand on it. From another forum I read they did the vinegar test and it bubbled so they assumed it was argronite based. Is this sand okay??

KPM Industries Ltd >> Product Catalogue >> Aggregates Blocks

Its the second one on this link. I seem to only be able to find this one here

Nilet699

If it's arognite based I'd imagine you should avoid it. This is basically what marine sand is.... and its not for FW except in certain set ups. African cichlids? Think it's them.

JDM

It's listed as a silica quartz sand, it should be fine. Perhaps the fizzy vinegar test was done prior to cleaning it?

When they say beach sand they are talking about lake sand not ocean beach sand which would be full of shell particles and be an issue with the water chemistry.

Jeff.

Byron

I would not myself use any "Beach" sand, just to be safe. You don't want to get an aquarium set up only to find you have to remove the entire substrate.

Do you have a Home Depot near you? If Lowe's don't carry Quikrete Play Sand, HD does.

beaslbob

I use play sand in all my fw and salt tanks since the late '70's.

I also let it set a week for the plants to get extabished.

There used to be a silica free tropical play sand that used to say right on the bag not fit for aquarium use. IMHO that referred to FW tank as the sand was calcium carbonate which woule raise the PH. But it was actually much sought after for marine tanks 3-5 years ago when deep sand beds were all the rage.

so to me as long as you let the tank get established with thriving plants (or macro algaes in saltwater) things will be just fine.

I would highly recommend you not use "live sand" which is for saltwater tanks.

my .02

JDM

Why the heck would a "silica" free sand make any difference to sand boxes and the like, I get why you wouldn't use silica free in a FW tank.

To clarify the OP's sand choices, the one posted is beach sand but it states lake sand in the information and silica quartz in the ingredients. Calling it beach sand makes it suitable for use in making sand castles and stuff... I think it even said that.

Individually those terms, lake sand and silica quartz, would assure me that the sand is suitable for the aquarium as lake sand is a quartz based sand and silica quartz (redundant term to be honest) is an inert material for any of our purposes.

At least our cleaning process doesn't get this involved, or at least we can stop after the first sentence:

Cleaning the quartz grains and increasing silica content is achieved by washing to remove clay minerals and scrubbing by attrition between particles. Production of the optimum size
distribution is achieved by screening to remove unwanted coarse particles and classification in an upward current of water to remove unwanted fine material. Quartz grains are often iron
stained and the staining may be removed or reduced by chemical reaction involving sulphuric acid at different temperatures. Impurities present as separate mineral particles may be removed by various processes
including gravity separation, froth flotation and magnetic separation. For the highest purity, for electronics applications, extra cleaning with aggressive acids such as hydrofluoric acid
combined with thermal shock may be necessary.

Jeff.

FishyFishy89

I use the exact sand Byron listed.
Here was my rinsed sand Sunday evening

And here is the aquarium yesterday

Homer16

Okay. Home Depot carries one on the floor called "For Well Material Inc"....never heard of it. They dont take anything else out until April so ill take my business elsewhere

Lowes has two types of Quickrete sand in. One is called "All purpose sand" and the other is "Play Sand"

I assume the play sand is the one I should buy? $7.18 for a 44lb bag is pretty good. I will grab 2-3 plus a bucket to clean it in as my buckets are to small. I know I need to remove fish but how long do the fish need to be removed for? I was hoping if I go careful to not stir the sand up that I could only house them temp. in large Rubbermaids for no more then a few hours (with a heater and filter) in place plus some gravel and plants. I do not have any temp tanks I can put them in.

Im hoping 2-3 bags will be enough but please give me your opinion im aiming for 1.5-2 inches on the bottom of the two larger tanks and 1 -1.5 inches on the bottom. I have;

35 Gallon tank
38 gallon tank
Two 5.5 gallon tanks
Two 2.5 gallons tanks (For the Bettas)

Also, how low can my filter intake tube be? The 2.5 gallons are almost touching the gravel and the ones in the larger tanks are about 6 inches from the bottom.