sand substrate... wrong type?

[sthawke1]

I have two black kuhli loaches who had to spend a night in an all gravel tank : ( until i got my parent to get some sand substrate. The sand she got is called "Nature's Ocean" and its labeled as marine sand. Is this allright for a freshwater aquarium? I'm worried it'll alter the water params of the tank.
Thanks for any input,
John

 

[dorkfish]

It will probably raise th PH and hardness a bit, thats why we use special sand for saltwater tanks, to what degree I don't know.If it's not to much trouble, get your money back and go to a pool store and get a bag of pool filter sand, wich is very cheap, but you'll only want to use enough to give your loaches some space to dig, this stuff packs down easy and will cause anerobic areas wich when distubed will cause amonia spikes (or something else bad, not sure though) but will also cause low nitrate levels (good to a point, nitrate bottoming out is suposed to cause cyano).

 

[sthawke1]

aiighty thanks