Need help about silica sand..

[hoangben]

Hi everyone,
I just recently bought 2 50lb bags of this super fine silica sand, it was call leveling sand at Home Depot, it is a powdery fine sand. Can I actually use this stuff?? or is it too fine? Has anyone tried this kind of sand? Please, any reponse will be appreciated.

[Harriett]

The finer silica is more likely to blow around and won't hold plants down very well. When you vacuum the substrate it will be more likely to get sucked up, whereas the larger grained is more likely to NOT get sucked up. Remember to hold the tube at an angle when you syphon so the sand can drop back down easily. Sorry, but I would stick with the larger grained silica pool sand, it is the best inert substrate I've used.
Best regards,
Harriett

[David Rose]

Hi "hoangben",

Welcome to SD!

I agree with Harriett completely. I bought the Quickcrete Play sand from Home Depot and have it in my tank now. I'm satisfied with it for the most part, but it does get sucked up easily when I vacuum.

[DiscusFreakaZoid]

estes white sand is superb. not as fine and powdery looks great too. more grainy than powdery.

[Matt in Houston]

The best sand substrate I have found is the new Crystal River substrate by Caribsea....its very similar to their Torpedo Beach but has a smaller average grain size. The specs are listed on the Caribsea website....

Only downside for me was the price....its not cheap.

[discusjoe27]

I used the pool filter sand from leslies(spelling?) pool supplies worked great.
it wasn't to small or big. think it was around 15 dollars for a 50lb bag...then I took it out when I got the saltwater bug, now going to sell that tank, and get a 150 cube(48x24x30) complete set up from craigslist

[matti2uude]

Here is a good article on sand.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/sand.php

[tcyiu]

Here is a good article on sand.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/sand.php

Dude. That is a GREAT link! Thanks.

Tim

[tcyiu]

Hi everyone,
I just recently bought 2 50lb bags of this super fine silica sand, it was call leveling sand at Home Depot, it is a powdery fine sand. Can I actually use this stuff?? or is it too fine? Has anyone tried this kind of sand? Please, any reponse will be appreciated.

I bought some stuff called SafeSand. It is very fine and powdery. In a test of its properties, I found that I could NOT use it because the slightest movement would kick up a fine powder that would stay suspended for many minutes.

I searched and searched for white sand in my area. I could not find anything since the sand sold in hardware stores, pool stores, garden stores and construction material outlets are mined locally, and none of it is white. All the sand is a dark tan color which is not what I wanted.

I finally bit the bullet and went to the LFS to by the very expensive CaribSea products (NOT the coral based sand which will affect the water). Wouldn't you know it, they were out.

The guy at the LFS told me about a product from 3M called ColorQuartz. It is almost as expensive as the CaribSea stuff. But I really like it a lot.

Do a search and read up on it.

Tim

[satt71]

go to meijers and ask for pool filter sand. this is only $5 for 50 lbs...good luck

[poconoboss]

I heard good things about this sand:

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/242917/i/1/product.web