WTB Freshwater sand for aquarium SOCAL

[fishtankfactory]

I don't know too much about the different types of sand, but if anybody has any suggestions or any for sale, that would be great. This would be going into a 150 gallon. Something that will go well with Driftwood.

Also looking for driftwood.

Thanks,

 

[jeffrom]

Try Pool Filter sand from any pool supply store. $10 for 50lb bags. I've heard of filters being clogged with play sand from any hardware store so when I used sand I went with the pool filter stuff and it worked great.

 

[xxt2goodxx]

yea i used to use pool filter sand and it worked great and yet it was so cheap!! other sands that i have used would screw up my filters and stuff but this stuff sinks and works great!! go with pool filter sand

 

[fishtankfactory]

Wow, I might need to look into that. So there are no harmful chemicals to be aware of? Any other details with using this pool sand? Do I need to soak it extra long?

 

[dirtyblacksocks]

Just rinse it real well, experiment on it's clarity by putting some into a 5 gallon bucket and mixing it around with your hand. Once you can see the sand in the bucket after stirring it's clean enough to go into the tank.

 

[fishtankfactory]

Cool, are there types of freshwater sand out there that actually is good for an aquarium such as provide essential 'nutrients' or bacteria?

 

[dirtyblacksocks]

Not as much so as live sand for marine aquaria but SeaChem and CaribSea both make certain substrates that are water packed and will naturally buffer waters for specific fish. They're mainly used for african cichlids, but there are also types of flourite and laterite out there that will provide nutrients that - while very beneficial to plants - can have beneficial affects for fish as well.

When you weigh out the cost vs. the benefit it's really not worth it, though, unless you plan on adding plants somewhere down the line or keep a lot of algae eaters.

Another thing to take into consideration, if you have catfish or other belly crawlers, is to maybe purchase torpedo sand. Which is collected from beaches and naturally rounded by the natures current.

You can find it at http://www.marinedepot.com for somthing like 12.00 for 20 lbs. They're located in Anaheim and allow local pickup.

 

[fishtankfactory]

This is all good information. The only bottom dwellers I will have are tire track eels, marbled gobies and a few plecos.

 

[dirtyblacksocks]

The eel would probably appreciate torpedo sand, but it's not an absolute necessity. Just depends on how much money you'd like to spend. The torpedo sand is what I use in all my tanks - it's already prerinsed and easy to gravel vacuum without getting sucked up.

It will cloud your tank for about 12 hours if you rinse it lightly before adding it, but nowhere near the work that pool filter sand is to get clean.

 

[USMCtanker]

what colors does pool sand come in?