"Sand Blasting Sand"

dagizmo19

I have heard conflicting ideas about the use of Silica Sand (AKA. Sand Blasting Sand).

Some of you might have been seeing my previous posts, but I am going to be setting up a 55 gallon (probibly a community tank, but it possibly could be a Tropheus Tank.)

Can this Silica sand be used in a community setup, and what would any Pro's / Con's be?

Tyyrlym

If its just silica sand then it's fine to use. Pros and Cons are the same as using any sand. The only thing to really consider from that point is if you like the grain size. The smaller the grain the firmer it's going to pack down but the more easily it will get stirred up.

eruuska

I used to manage a business that used a lot of sand blasting sand (long before I kept fish), so I know a little about its properties.

For consistent high-quality sandblasting, the sand needs to be very uniform. Like sandpaper has a "grit rating", so does blasting media. The granules also tend to be very round. This gives it a "quicksand" feel to it even when it's dry. It's very easy to plunge your arm deeply into a bag of blasting media, as opposed to something like play sand. My thought is that it might not have enough firmness, when it sits at the bottom of your tank, to keep your plants, decorations, etc., stable.

Silica itself is quite a stable substance and should pose no harm to the tank. I'm only thinking of aesthetics.

Just my $0.02. If you try it, let us know how it works.

Eric

dagizmo19

Excellent, thanks for the feedback! This would be a very inexpensive option for a sub straight!

Tyyrlym

How much does it cost? I'd be surprised if it beat out regular old play sand at $4 for 50 lbs.

letmec17

funny u should mention that about blasting sand, i use to work at this place called Quikrete where we use to bag the sand there were 2 types of sand, you had the fine ( blue and brown bag) and medium( green and brown bag ), the medium was more coarse, most people didn't know that the fine sand was also sold as playsand, of course you paid more for the blasting sand. I'm glad i ran across this topic because i was wondering if playsand could be used in an tank, cause i got like 4 bags in the garage, i was just using them to fill in low spots in the yard. thanks, you guys are very informative.

Tyyrlym

I used playsand for the the substrate in my tank. One 50lb bag for this tank gave me plenty.

Spoon

50lbs for which tank?

Tyyrlym

My 48 gallon corner tank.

48 Corner - 48 gallon Freshwater fish tank