In my area “Aquarium Sand” come sin all sorts of pretty colors and sells for $7~9 per 20 lbs… this is the super fine grained stuff that gets sucked into your filters and convinces people sand is a bad idea…
The there is play sand which sells for $5~6 per 50 lb but requires A LOT of washing… This has a very wide range of grain sizes and the longer you wash it the more smaller particles you get out. If you don’t get them out they are likely to damage your filters.
Or for $8~9 per 50 lb I can buy Pool Filter Sand which is consistently large grained particles with no fines (pool filter sand is regulated by the manufacturer to be consistent in size as it has to allow water to pass through it to filter pool water, if it were full of fines it wouldn’t work as pool filter sand). Some rinsing is necessary as the sand will grind against itself in transport and create a little dust, but this can reduce your washing time from 1~2 hours (as with play sand) down to 5~10 minutes (with Pool Filter Sand).
Or if you want fancy/pretty colors I suggest going with 3M products. There are a couple of grades, the larger size will suit you better for aquarium use.
In my book it’s worth spending $3 to save an 1~1.5 hours… and not thoroughly washing sand can result in a much more costly filter replacement…
The there is play sand which sells for $5~6 per 50 lb but requires A LOT of washing… This has a very wide range of grain sizes and the longer you wash it the more smaller particles you get out. If you don’t get them out they are likely to damage your filters.
Or for $8~9 per 50 lb I can buy Pool Filter Sand which is consistently large grained particles with no fines (pool filter sand is regulated by the manufacturer to be consistent in size as it has to allow water to pass through it to filter pool water, if it were full of fines it wouldn’t work as pool filter sand). Some rinsing is necessary as the sand will grind against itself in transport and create a little dust, but this can reduce your washing time from 1~2 hours (as with play sand) down to 5~10 minutes (with Pool Filter Sand).
Or if you want fancy/pretty colors I suggest going with 3M products. There are a couple of grades, the larger size will suit you better for aquarium use.
In my book it’s worth spending $3 to save an 1~1.5 hours… and not thoroughly washing sand can result in a much more costly filter replacement…
