Play sand or Paver sand for plants?

packer43064

packer43064

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 10, 2008
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There is play sand(the light light brown kind) and paver sand(it's a darker brown and mixed with little bits of black and other brown color sand) at my local Walmart.

I want to use it for plants in my 125 gar tank. Which would be better for plants. The paver sand looks real nice but IDK if it has chemicals or something like that in it that could kill the plants or even worse my gars.:( Thanks MFK.
 
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swede

Feeder Fish
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Mar 26, 2009
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ןɟ 'opuɐןɹo ɹɐǝu
if you must use sand, use POOL sand. it is very clean and fairly cheap. I would recommend using vermiculite as a 1st layer to help your plants, then sand on top. Vermiculite is fairly cheap as well and can be found in most garden centers. just be sure it doesn't have any ferts or other additives.... just plain vermiculite
 
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swede

Feeder Fish
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Mar 26, 2009
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ןɟ 'opuɐןɹo ɹɐǝu
If you're going to get some substrate like that, I highly recommend eco-complete. check around lfs to see if they carry it, cuz its like crazy for shipping
 
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vicdeedee

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 2, 2009
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paversand like (enviorbond or polymeric) has polyimers in it that when sprayed with water harden like cement to prevent movement of pavers and weed growth. bad idea in a fish tank full of water
 
packer43064

packer43064

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 10, 2008
3,308
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Ohio
It's black though. It might look sort of weird with the brown sand then black on top. I would go black but that's even more money. While pool filter sand is cheap. I might just get the flourite, they have it for like 17 bucks at Petsmart. At bigalsonline, it was 27.98 for shipping.
 
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MonsterMinis

Feeder Fish
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Apr 28, 2009
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being pretty new to the planted tank community, I have to say I went with eco complete in my 20H and am in love with the stuff. I mixed it with flourite, and the colors look very nice together IMO. Very natural. when my eel outgrows his 40 breeder i intend to use strictly eco complete. It is abit pricey but I am very very happy with it. It's made growing plants very easy. It also depends on what you plan on planting.

speaking from experiance play sand is more trouble then it's worth.. after 20 rinses it was still a beast to make a 10 gallon even remotely clear watered. I couldn't imagine how much of a potential disaster it could be in a 125 already stocked.
 
jtalley

jtalley

Candiru
MFK Member
Apr 18, 2009
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I'm not doing a planted tank, but I am currently setting up a tank using pool filter sand that I got from Wal-mart, I think it was about $5 for a 50 lb bag.
 
Diamond Discus

Diamond Discus

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 10, 2008
197
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Iowa
www.zenfolio.com
packer43064;3120116; said:
Okay so pool filter sand is tho go with eco-complete and flourite mixed on top.
Click to expand...

Your sand will sink to the bottom of the eco-complete and not show over time, so if you are going to mix it you may as well not bother with the sand. I love pool filter sand, but if you want black sand try 3M color quarts sand. This place has free shipping. I have used this and it's beautiful!
http://www.vbpstore.com/50-lb-bag-of-3m-color-quartz.html

If you want a good plant substrate I use this:
http://www.aquariumplants.com/Freshwater_Aquarium_Plant_Substrate_p/ss.htm

It only took 1 1/2 buckets for my 178 gallon tank.
 
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