changing to sand
- Thread starter vtnamezeboi
- Start date
I just bought some playsand from home depot, but I see that it may not be a good choice. Why exactly does it cloud up? I can return it for some sandblasting sand, but it's white not black. They may have pool filter sand; which is better, the blasting sand or the pool sand? I just got my 75 gal today and test filled it. I am about to go out for more supplies; including looking for decor, plants and such. I will try to wait for a reponse from you before I head out. Thanks, Tom
nero6370;493368; said:
I used playsand...It works great for me. 3.75 a bag at home depot...all depends on what king of filtration you have.
My water cleared up in a day, I rinsed my sand in the shower in 5 gallon buckets for a few minutes per bucket.
A few times a week ill stir up the bottom and let my cannister and wet/dry handle it.
Good Luck...
I'll have pics up soon if you would like to see how my monster house looks
Pics would be great; I went and exchanged the playsand for pool filter sand anyway. I am going to drain the 75 and put it on my stand. I hope my AC 110 will do it's job at least until I can build a decent wet/dry for it. I went to Wal-mart and saw a neat 3 drawer plastic storage case; I saw a diy for a wet/dry in a similar set up. I also got some Scotch-brite scratch pads, the dark red ones (very fine) for the 1st or maybe 2nd compartment of the wet/dry. I am doing a trial one in my 10 gal feeder tank using a cut to fit piece of the pad in place of the penguin insert. So far its working great. I plan to stack 7 or 8 pads together and just peel off the nasty one on top when necessary. I am unsure of how to feed to wet/dry; initally I was going to use a Flotec pump for a return and gravity to feed the sump. But I saw some diy overflows feeding a sump and thought maybe I would do that. I am unsure if even I need an overflow... any advice would be great!! Sorry if I got off topic. Thanks, Tom
I used pool filter sand in two of my tanks and I love the stuff. It is much more natural looking than gravel. I paid about $2.50 for a 50lb bag. I had to rinse it 12 times before I got it to the clarity that I wanted.
What I did to get the silt or dust out was to put part of it into a cooler filled with water (a bucket will do) and then used a garden hose with a jet nozzle to keep the sand stirred. I started with using my hands but found that letting the water pressure do the work was a ton easier. The first several rinses I just let the water overflow for a while because of the large amount of silt suspended in the water. I kept rinsing and dumping water until only the large grains remained. I was left with better than 80% of the bag and it was enough to do two 20L tanks. When my cichlids dig (scoop and spit), there isnt any cloudiness what so ever. A little time and a lot of patients will pay out with great returns.
Ron
What I did to get the silt or dust out was to put part of it into a cooler filled with water (a bucket will do) and then used a garden hose with a jet nozzle to keep the sand stirred. I started with using my hands but found that letting the water pressure do the work was a ton easier. The first several rinses I just let the water overflow for a while because of the large amount of silt suspended in the water. I kept rinsing and dumping water until only the large grains remained. I was left with better than 80% of the bag and it was enough to do two 20L tanks. When my cichlids dig (scoop and spit), there isnt any cloudiness what so ever. A little time and a lot of patients will pay out with great returns.
Ron
