I have a friend that used playsand that they bought at home depot and have had his tank running for over a year now. I was wondering if this is a good idea? It has seemed to work for him, and its much cheaper to buy from there, so i may try it. Just wanted to hear some opnions on this?
Has anyone used playsand in their aquariums???
- Thread starter tsdpurdue
- Start date
Actually, it works just fine so long as it isn't contaminated. It may release some residual silicate until is is coated in a bacterial biofilm. After that, there should be no issues.
We dont have this in the UK, but i have seen this mentioned quite a few times. Does anybody actually know why this type of sand is so hard to find??
I have play sand in my 30g. It requires rinsing very well before use, and it has been releasing silicates a good bit, evident by the diatoms, but those are slowing down now. I don't know if the silicates bother the fish, but they make plants struggle a bit, starving them for light I assume? Other than that it's worked fine. Actually I get diatoms in every newly setup tank, but this one seemed a wee bit worse.
I spent wendsday driving to all my local stores trying to find southdown, to no avail...
ive also heard that "old castle" is made by the same people, but cant find it either... ill try some farm supply stores this weekend..im starting to wonder if it still exists.
Kinda amazing considering that "playsand" meant for kids contains silica...just look at the MSDS sheet sometime.. i really wouldnt want my kids playing in it...its very similar to asbestos...including a risk of cancer.
youd figure based on that fact alone, aragonite would be alot easier to find...
The southdown sand was discontinued foe general use mainly because the company realized they could get $20.00+ for aquaria vs. the $5.00 they were getting at home depot.
i have used play sand in a saltwater tank and it always had a diatom problem no matter what i did. i eventually took it out