Sand questions.

[deeplove]

I'm doing a DIY concrete background and I'm putting some Anubias Nanas in there but I wanted to go with white sand. I was thinking about adding fert substrate under and sand over, but I want to know if I can use sand that you can buy from Home Depot and stuff. It won't have many nanas in there but enough to give it some color.

[pbrack]

I don't think adding sand on top of any other substrate will work! Since sand is much smaller than any other substrate (including Fluorite), it will end up at the bottom anyways!

Hope this helps

[deeplove]

It does and thanks for the response. Now what I would like to know is what brand of sand can I get that won't affect any parameters in the tank. I looked at the play sand in Home Depot but it was more brownish than white. I didn't really like it cause it looked pretty dirty. So what type can I use that is white?

[pbrack]

I used some marine white sand from Big als. I know there are cheaper ways to go, but I'd rather be safe than sorry, since some commercial sand (for sndboxes and other stuff) can containi silicates, if I'm not mistaken. Also, the marine sand has not affected any of my parameters.
Just make sure you don't go for crushed coral or aragonite :thm:

Hope this helps this time!

[deeplove]

Thank you. I've been going through BigAls and I like what I see. Not bad on the pricing. But thanks for the reply.

[phanmc]

Silica sand is inert and won't change the water parameters unlike aragonite, coral, and limestone sands. It should also be a lighter color and cleaner looking than playsand so that's probably what you're looking for.

[VTwinFanatic]

I will say one thing about white sand and a planted tank....the white shows green algae much better than a darker color....might just want to keep that in mind also...i had a problem with trying to do white sand and a planted tank...it starts to become green more so than the pristine white you are looking for

[knashash]

I have had excellent results with Tube Sand from Home Depot. Check it out..the whole tube costs 5 buck. I used a layer of laterite first and then put about 3-4 inches of sand on top of that. My plants and fish are doing great. And it has a nice light brownish color......

[deeplove]

I will say one thing about white sand and a planted tank....the white shows green algae much better than a darker color....might just want to keep that in mind also...i had a problem with trying to do white sand and a planted tank...it starts to become green more so than the pristine white you are looking for

I've already read a couple of stories about that too. But the algae won't bother me. I'm actually going to promote it so it can grow on the DIY background. Not that I want it to over run the tank but enough so it could look as natural as possible.