Pool sand vs Play sand vs Construction sand !!!!

Pool sand---you mean #20 pool filter sand? Never had a problem with it. mine is mostly tan with some white grains.

Play sand...I find it compacts a bit too much for me.

Construction sand...can't say I'm familiar with it.

I find a 50/50 mix of play and pool filter sand is a nice texture and looks natural.

I did a quick Google search and from what I gather construction sand will raise your PH dramatically.

PFS...

Uniform size granules and looks "au naturale" once it has been in the tank. A good rinse and you should not have to worry about it being in your filtration. I have had more issues with Tahition Moon Sand getting into water change buckets than PFS...

I would say Pool Filter Sand.

pfs. I have it in all my multie tanks, they are constantly picking it up in their mouths and moving it around, they have no problems. It is easy to clean and I have had no problems with it in my flitration.

I use construction sand in my tanks. I like the way it looks. All the different colors and such.

Construction sand does need to be rinsed like crazy. Took me several hours. Construction sand is normally just the sieved particles from gravel so it has many different sizes and generally a lot of dirt in it. Depending upon the composition it may mess with the pH some but due to the amount of rinsing that I did I haven't had any problems.

All three will work it just depends upon what you like.

I have pool filter sand in all five of my tanks. I really like it. It brightened up my tanks, and I spread large, smooth, river gravel on it here and there to give it a more natural look. I've never had it in my filters.

I've never used the other sands that you mentioned, so I can't comment on them.

i agree pool filter is a great cheap sand. i mix in some lime sand if i need buffering.

i recently bought some expensive marine type substrate and i love that too! it was called grey coast calcite.

I have mixed river sand with pool filter sand. The river sand needs to be rinsed ALOT!
But I love the consistency, and plants stay put, and easy to put in. the only pool filter sand i can get is pure white, so I like to add the river sand, its a cinnamon colour afterwards.
The chipokae moves it around all day building mountains.
Pool filter sand is cheap for clean sand. the river sand is very cheap as I got a ute load from landscape suppliers for $30, but the cleaning it can be a bit tiresome.