Anyone ever used this??
- Thread starter Piranha101
- Start date
I use PFS, or commercial grade water filtration plant sand. from a local water filtration plant supplier, or Pool store.
It is normally around $5 for a 50 lb bag.
It is normally around $5 for a 50 lb bag.
Washed play sand at Lowe's is $2.50 for 40 or 50lb bags. Can't remember size. Quick Crete gravel is cheap too. Never had any problems with that stuff. Just rinse it good.
I don't remember the brand, I don't think it matters really if it's sand. I might be wary if there was a red tint to it but most PFS is off white to tan so none of it should be a problem. I'm fairly sure all the people on this site have used a different brand or packaging and it all works.
I use AquaQuartz that I ordered from Amazon. Just make sure that you rinse it well and you should be good. Like Chockful said, as long as it is sand, i'm sure it has been successfully been used.
One of the reasons to use PFS, as opposed to lighter weight types like "play sand", is the lighter weight sands can more easily be swept into filters, where they pitt and ruin impellers. 4 decades ago when I first started to use sand, I tried play sand, and ditched it after the impellers in my pumps became useless. PFS is more dense so it quickly sinks after being backwashed, so if you keep larger fish like cichlids that can sweep sand up with their movements, or mouth it and spit it out in clouds, PFS is less likely to get sucked into filter siphons or tubes. If you have smaller community fish, this may not be a concern.
I prefer the uniformity of the Fairmount Santrol AquaQuartz over the HTH brand pool filter sand. I do like the color of the HTH sand a little more. It's a little more natural, brown colored than the AquaQuartz brand. We have the AquaQuartz sand in our 300, 265, and 75 gallon tanks, while the HTH is in the other 75, 55, and 40 gallon breeder tanks. I'm in the process of switching over the 600 to AquaQuartz sand.
This. I tried Play Sand once....never again. From here on out I'll only ever use PFS if I'm looking to go with sand as a substrate.