125 G planted help urgent!

[fishbum]

If you rinse it a lot,then rinse it some more,then rinse it again,then bake it,it would probably be fine.

Having sand in a planted tank is also fine.

But considering pool sand and play sand are so cheap,do you really want to risk it in a tank with a few hundred dollars worth of discus?

 

[zpetrichko]

i'll see if i have any on this computer, i wish i had checked this earlier because i was home for a bit.

 

[zpetrichko]

i don't have any, the sand looks good though. Honestly if you make sure you wash it alot you'll be fine. What i did was filled a 5 gallon bucket half full with sand had water running constantly and just kept turning the sand over with my hand. after about 10 minutes the sand had settled and all of the dirt and stuff had been washed away.

 

[SkySouza]

Hey thanks for checking anyway. I guess the reason that I would like to use beach sand is the looks. It really isn't worth the risk but I was just hoping for some reassurance. I've heard of people cleaning and baking their sand before with no problems and I've kinda run out of money as of late. It's either rent or stall on my new tank till I sell a few of the others.

 

[MONSTERUP]

now did you think about the plants not having anything to anchor on to. also for ferts, they sell tabs that you insert next to your plants about every 6 months or so. work really good.

 

[Electric45]

Honestly, i would say go with the home depot sand. $5 dollars max for about 50 lbs. Beach sand looks very similar to it and you would be safer not risking any future discus. If you do go with the play sand from home depot, stick about 10-15 pounds in a 5 gallon bucket and rinse it out for roughly 25 minutes at least i would say. Basically if you fill the bucket up with water while turning the sand over, u dont want to put hte sand in your tank until the water overflowing from the bucket is clear, that way you know you got rid of all the dust and dirtyness. IMO basically its not worth the risk to you beach sand. Your plants will do fine in play sand, its a very commonly used substrate. Might take a little while longer to grow out if you grow dwarf hairgrass or something but for most plants id assume its fine. GL! and keep us posted.