jack Dempsey's and sand

[rmorse]

Hey guys,

I want to add sand to my JD tank. Is playsand from Home Depot ok to use?


Thanks.

 

[octofasciatus]

Play sand is considered safe and Inert and cheaper than aquatic sand. An alternative is sand used for sand-blasting but I've never personally used it.

 

[sick_lid]

you have to clean the crap out of it cause it's full of stuff

 

[rmorse]

Ok. So just do normal water changes, and hover the syphon over the sand?

 

[sick_lid]

no no no, before you add it. for sand i will pour some in a bucket or larger container (a few pounds at a time) fill the rest with water, swish it around for a couple minutes, pour out the water, and do over and over till it looks pretty clear. takes a little time, but pouring it directly in your tank will not only cloud it up pretty badly for a while, but it can be full of harmful/dirty partcles and such as well

 

[rmorse]

Ohhhh, ok. Yea, I was planning on doing that. Will be a pain, but worth it.

 

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

after all that it should be fine, although every time I've used it I become unhappy with the general color

 

[rmorse]

Yea, I do like the look of pool filter sand as well.


Dunno where there is a pool shop though.

 

[Toby_H]

I highly recomend using Pool Filter Sand as opposed to Play Sand... PFS has consistently sized large grains where PS is a huge variety of sizes and you will have to wash out the smaller particles. I pay $8 for 50 lbs of PFS as opposed to $5 for 50 lb of PS and I save myself one heck of a headache.

Since you found this website I'm sure you can find a Pool Store in town

...and I use PFS in several tanks with JDs in them and it works great...

 

[sick_lid]

my lfs sells pool filter sand under the name 'blast sand' - same price. might want to give yours a try