Habitat - Indoor :: Sand FAQ

[Chrisbarnett]

Uhm I'm unsure if Monterey sand from home depot is the same as play sand. But Silica sands are fine for the aquarium. Your hand is probably stinging from stirring it a bunch or something. It's like the bottoms of your feet after running on the sand at the beach all day lol.

[danny123]

i remember reading something that said i should stir the sand every couple of days. is that right? and why does it need to be done?

[Chrisbarnett]

Its more like every few weeks. It's because of trapped air bubbles in the sand. Left unstirred, these bubbles turn into anoxic gas bubbles(having very low oxygen content) and can harm your aquarium.

[Rubicon]

Heres a few updated pictures of my tank, (Been posted before)

And after changing the UVB lighting

Man what kind of tank is that!? Also what kind of sand do you have?

[nickyds23]

Has anyone had problems with the ply sand color leeching nto the tank water?

[Rubicon]

Leeching?

[Caphits]

Like if you have blue sand, you would get blue water.

[Chrisbarnett]

Here's my tank as of now, with a new light fixture and stuff. Looks a lot cleaner along the top.

[Chrisbarnett]

Man what kind of tank is that!? Also what kind of sand do you have?

It's an Acrylic tank. Unknown manufacturer. The guy I bought it from had it custom built for him. I have Commercial grade Quikrete: Medium sand, 30 grit. It's just like fine aquarium sand.

Has anyone had problems with the ply sand color leeching nto the tank water?

As far as I know, no problems with leaching have occured. All the main coloring comes out when you rinse the sand so it shouldn't leach out color after that. Might want to rinse it extra well in the cleaning process before you put it in the tank just in case.

[Rubicon]

Well I picked up 35lbs of marine sand today at the local animart. Paid $1 a pound and the the stuff was already washed, filtered, etc... I still did the pillow case thing myself in 5lb intervals and got nothing (kinda felt like a dummy). So I added the sand after filtering all of it. Within 5mins the tank was completely clear (never was cloudy to begin with).

I must say, sand looks GREAT and is super easy if you get the right stuff.



Only problem is my little knuckle heads are chomping away at it. I'm sure they'll learn.

[Rubicon]

No flash:



Flash:

[Chrisbarnett]

Nice job. Looks good.

[nickyds23]

Well, I went out and got a fifty pound bag of Sakrete Playsand from Home Depot today and washed it for around fifteen minutes.
After empyting out my tank and cleaning it, I put the sand in.
Then I filled my tank up with water.
Now it looks great and there was never really any cloudiness.
The only thing that was odd that happened is that one of my turtles tried to have sex with the sand I think.
Maybe he's just really hitting puberty but his penis came out and he was down at the bottom messing with the sand for awhile.
It scared me when I realized what he was doing but then he put it away and seems to be doing fine.

[Chrisbarnett]

Well, I went out and got a fifty pound bag of Sakrete Playsand from Home Depot today and washed it for around fifteen minutes.
After empyting out my tank and cleaning it, I put the sand in.
Then I filled my tank up with water.
Now it looks great and there was never really any cloudiness.
The only thing that was odd that happened is that one of my turtles tried to have sex with the sand I think.
Maybe he's just really hitting puberty but his penis came out and he was down at the bottom messing with the sand for awhile.
It scared me when I realized what he was doing but then he put it away and seems to be doing fine.

Squirt did the same thing, and still does occasionally. Simple pleasures...

[FatherUnderground]

i went to my local hardware store and picked up a 50 pound bag of play sand, and washed it for about 15-20 minutes then added it to the tank. its been almost 4 days and the water is still slightly cloudy, ive had my filter going for about a day and half. any suggestions? ill post a pic later when i get home.