Pool Filter Sand

[Kaluden]

If you do happen to ever pick up the 3M color quartz stuff, be prepared to become black during the cleaning.

This stuff looks spectacular once it is washed, and washed, and washed, and then installed, but be prepared for the adventure of cleaning it. When you rinse it you and whatever you are rinsing it in WILL be coated in a thick black oily substance that only comes off with dawn or other anti grease soaps (think mechanic soap.)

Sand blasting sand, typically you want to be careful with what you get in this aspect. I can not speak for all sands, but when I got some black blasting sand and cleaned it, I personally ended up with several small, what looked like glass, splinters in my hands. A very uncomfortable situation. I decided to toss that sand because I figured if I can get slivers, the fishes gills would be doomed.

I will be trying a standard play sand in my next aquarium due to the fact that if i get another black ring in the bathtub that takes hours to scrub out, my wife will -murder- me. That being said though, I love my 3m color quartz in my tank, looks great, has held color, and seems to grow plants. huzzah.

 

[jpappy789]

Never used sandblasting sand, but I would definitely be careful as mentioned above.

 

[Nolapete]

Do NOT use sandblasting "sand!" I can tell you from experience doing sandblasting that it is not just ground up rocks. It contains all kinds of other stuff.

 

[Kennedy327]

I use playsand. went to home depot and they have a 50# bag of quickcrete playsand for $3. Its white and fine grain. My corys love it.

 

[rithunder916]

yes, the sandblasting sand tends to have glass mixed into it, depending on what grade you get. I wanted to use play clay actually, and I might experiment with that eventually, but for now i'll be sticking with the pool sand. This time of year is hard, so you might need to scrounge some, but it's there!


Mike

 

[DrgRcr]

Here is mine with the 3M color quartz s-grade black. I was lucky enough to find a pool supplies store 5 miles from me who ordered it, 50 lbs for $38. It is very heavy and sinks right back down when disturbed. It does need to be washed VERY well though, and wear gloves.

 

[yhbae]

How long have you cleaned it for? Some people claims they did it for more than 20 hours... -_-

I too have a dealer roughly 5 miles away from me, hopefully they will have this in stock.

I like the dark color. I am personally going black on the background too...

 

[DrgRcr]

I did it for about 2 hours, in small batches in hot water. I think part of the problem is that when you are rubbing it, the black continually comes off on your hands. I don't know that any amount of cleaning would stop that. I just cleaned it until the water looked pretty clear.