Can play sand be used?

[snoopy65]

I have play sand in my frontosa tank and they do just fine. The rinsing is very important though. I remember when I did mine. I put the end of my python in a 5 gallon bucket and poured the play sand around it. Turned the water on to the python on low and left it.........for 10 hours with taking a skewer and stirring the sand a bit around the python. I made sure the end of the python never left the bottom of the bucket which helped to bubble up the particles so they could over flow the edge of the bucket. After doing this with 150 lbs of play sand, I put the sand in the tank. Then I put a plate on top of the sand and directed the the water coming out of the python on to the plate. This kept my cloudiness down considerably. My tank was clear within 8 hours. I have mts in the tank to tunnel through the sand to keep gas pockets from forming in it.

 

[Ptrick125]

Aragonite is made with crushed corals so it will raise your pH. It is not recommended unless you are going for cichlids.


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I got mine for my mbuna tank.



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[fish-n-chips]

I got mine for my mbuna tank.



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Although the substrate you chose is proper for the species you have chosen, it is not the best advise to give without knowing the parameters and occupants of ANY given generalized tank.
If you are going to ask for advise or recommend advise, please do so with as much info as possible.
Had this been for a soft water species , the results could be drastically different.
I wouldn't want to put discus in the water best suited for rifties and vise versa

 

[Ptrick125]

Ok, next time all ask the person what kind of fish they have. So I guess for discus you should use pool filter sand?


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[Cathan]

Play sand is fine. I just used it a few weeks ago on my new 45 gallon. Rinsed it for 3 hours. Did the whole plate method and of course it will get cloudy. Took me 2 weeks to get it crystal clear. Then had a bacteria bloom which cleared out in a week. So yeah. Might take a while but it looks very nice. Well, until it gets stirred up a bit then it'll get cloudy for a short period of time. (just added plants so..cloudy haha). I've heard good things about pool filter sand so I went to my lowes and they didn't know what it was or had it. So I chose play sand


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[Soulviolence]

I got playsand from Lowes originally, but decided to get pool filter sand from Home Depot after trying to rinse 1/3 of the playsand for about an hour. Pool filter sand took 1 hr for 100 lbs!!! Plus the pool filter sand seems more like whats on an actual beach. The play sand I kept for my beardie.

 

[dbosman]

Just a couple of extra comments.
There are two grain grades (grit size) for swimming pool filter sand. Basically 1mm and 2mm.
Color will vary all over the country as filter sand is locally sifted and bagged. Shipping cross county isn't cost effective.