There are sands that are safe for fresh water tanks. I have used Carib Sea products in my tanks for years with no problem. Petsmart has started to carry them but the website has a find local supplier tool if you are looking for more than one or two of their colors.

caribsea your aragonite source and more!

 

Welcome!

Lots of folks here use regular old playsand for Lowes or Home Depot. I have pool filter sand over natural gravel. You'll need to rinse and rinse and rinse some more to remove all the fine particles from the sand before putting in the tank.

 

Heard that sand for local hardware stores and such had chemicals in the sand that could negatively affect your fish. Does that happen to you? Or do you know anything about that?

 

I just started my new 55g tank the other day. I used Quickcrete play sand from Lowe's. Byron recommended it to me, it what he uses in his tanks.

 

9 out of 10 toddlers recommend play sand. Play sands are chemical free and should be safe ;-)

 

You are correct that some types of sand may have additives. And some types are not inert [inert means they will not affect water chemistry, such as hardness or pH]. Crushed coral sand and aragonite sand for instance will add calcium and magnesium raising the hardness of the water, and the corresponding pH will be much higher; this is ideal for rift lake cichlid tanks, or livebearers, but the last thing you want in a tank of soft water fish. Silica-base sand is not good to use because of the silicates (a type of mineral) which can increase the risk of diatoms (so-called brown algae). And some sands are too coarse (sharp edges).

Many of us have used playsand. It is very natural (similar appearance to many stream sands in the tropics) and is inert. Takes a lot of initial rinsing as someone mentioned, but once in the tank it performs well. Then there are the much more expensive "aquarium" sands which do look nice and perform well.

Byron.

 

Petco Black Aquarium Sand at PETCO

Here's a link of something I'm thinking about getting Bryon.
Would you recommend?

 

??

weird..

 

I ordered 20lbs of estes sand in black. Specifically for my Kuhli Loaches because they were getting a little torn up by my previous gravel substrate. It's worked well for me, but so does a lot of other sands for other people. I think it's preference. I got the estes sand from seacorals.net.

 

It's slightly larger grain than sugar.

 

Any kind of aquarium sand should be fine since it was made for the purpose of being used in aquariums.

I went to my local Ace Hardware and picked up a 50 pound bag of playsand for $4.99. This would be my recommendation if you are on a budget. If you do end up going with the playsand, make sure you rinse it many many many many times before putting it in the tank. Since it is meant for sandboxes for little kids, it obviously would not have any additives or toxins in it. I just took a gallon bowl and filled it with sand, ran water over the top, ran my hands through it, dumped out the murky water, and repeated until it would no longer produce murky water after stirring. Each bucket took a good 20-30 minutes. The end result is well worth it! My Corys love the sand and it makes the tank look better than gravel IMO.

Post some pics with your final result!