General Care Discussion :: Sand

[Shelby Craig]

ok i was putting a plastic plant in my tank today and when i moved the rocks it was horrible... gross stuff came up from between them and it was just horrible so ive decided to switch to sand.

i have a few questions...

ive seen something, somewhere on the internet of using this colored sand http://www.kaplanco.com/store/trans/pro ... &WT.srch=1

would this be alright?

and if not, i have a sandbox outside that i had when i was a kid, the sand has been in there for about 10 years would that still be ok to use after cleaning?

thanks

[VeipaCray]

Colored sand is dyed and will leach it's color into the water over time. The playsand will definitely work but it's been outside and now infested with who knows what bacteria and stuff.

A 50lb bag of brand new playsand is $4 at your local hardware store.

[Shelby Craig]

im going tomorrow or saturday to get some

[Jaysea]

If your getting play sand just remember to strain it first, sometimes people find wood chips or screws and other things in the bag....it's not a guarantee that it's in there, but better to be safe first.

[ErikP]

Play sand is dirt cheap and works great. Just put some in my tank a week and a half ago. Wash the heck out of it first though. I split mine up into 2 - 5 gallon buckets and kept stirring it up while running water into the buckets at a high flow rate, occasionally pouring the water out and then refilling. With all aquarium inhabitants safely waiting in a Sterilite tub half filled with water from the aquarium, the sand was introduced using a large plastic cup. The water was super cloudy, and I didn't want to wait forever for it to clear up, or to muck up my filter too much, so I continuously siphoned and refilled the tank until the water was relatively clear (not perfectly) and about half an hour later it was perfect. I removed the impromptu prefilter ,that I made with a scrap piece of filter pad, from the intake and everyone was returned home. My aquarium has never been so clear.

[Jessemoreno]

How do you clean the sand once its in the aquarium?

[happycamper]

Debris will sit on top of the sand, you siphon but just keep it sightly above the sand.

[Deorc Val]

Hi! I just upgraded my tank and switched from river rocks to sand. I LOVE it, and so do the turts. They dig around in it, and one likes to wear it!
Since I was buying sand for a 150 gallon tank I decided to skip on the $5 5lb bags at the petstore and went to Home Depot. I bought two 60 lb bags of Cemex sand, which is washed and graded. I saw the playsand everyone says to get and it was $4 for 50 lbs. One of each types of sand had a busted bag so I compared the grain and they looked the same. I decided to go with the other clean sand for $4 for 120 lbs. It worked out great! Make sure you wash it well, I don't think we rinsed it enough.
Here's a pic, water's a little murky and we poured the sand 2 days ago.

[steve]

Looks very nice! Have you posted other pics your tank before?

[ErikP]

I didn't rinse my sand nearly enough, and simply used a method I saw on one forum or another that somebody dubbed "Lazy Man's Method". This person claims to have not rinsed their sand at all, I rinsed mine a lot, but as I live in an upstairs apartment, I had to use the bathtub rather than a garden hose, and it got old after about 15 minutes. After filling the aquarium back up and seeing how murky the water was I decided to adopt Lazy Man Method, which consists of syphoning out and replacing water repeatedly, or steadily if you're lucky enough to have one of those fancy doodads that attaches to your faucet. After about 10-15 minutes of bucketing water back and forth between living room and bathroom, my water was almost clear. Half an hour later, crystal clear.

[sflemin2]

Haha I did that last night too. I was in a hurry because I only had my boyfriend for an hour and I can lift the sand! My water is super cloudy. I don't have a garden hose so I had to use the bath tub..and my tub has very low pressure so I didn't know what to do. They love it though!

[Deorc Val]

Thanks steve! I've got a couple pictures around of my tank I've been using this site as long as I've had my turtles but just recently joined as I've had lots of questions about larger tanks! I was just able to upgrade to a 150. Finanaces are slowing the progress, but me and the turts are excited, lol.

Also, my water is now crystal clear! It took about 3-4 days of cycling, but the water is very clear now!
Remember after your water clears up to rinse all the sand of out your filter(s)!

[sflemin2]

I was going to change my water tonight because its been 2 days for me... but I will wait 2 more days. It is clearing up..just very slowly!