Leslie's PFS and Painting questions

[Joe M]

Looking at my sand options for my 125 today. I was running to every home depot in my area for plumbing parts, then realized HD sucks so i went to lowes. On my way home i saw a leslie's pool supply and recognized the name so I stopped to look at their sand. It looked good, much better than what I had. I was just wondering what peoples experiences with this stuff is. I recently destroyed an AC110 with fine sand and would like to avoid my Fx5 suffering the same fate. Any tips would be appreciated, and yes it WILL be washed thoroughly first.

Oh and while I'm asking, I have another question. I have been using rustoleum spray paint to do the backgrounds of my tanks, and love the results, but the near sub-zero temps here prevent me from painting outside. I could pull it off inside if needed, as Ive done before, but I enjoy breathing so does anyone have a good paint to roll on that will look as good as spray?

Thanks.

 

[prober]

You can roll most any paint on and then use a brush to smooth out the paint. This is called "tip and roll". It will still cause breathing problems indoors though since the evaporation of the solvents in the paint is still happening.

Pool filter sand is great and should not be a problem. Any sand will get in your filter if it gets pushed towards the inlet though. A spnge pre-filter will prevent most of those problems though.

 

[Toby_H]

Leslies Pool Filter Sand is a nice coarse sand that works very well in aquaria applications... I've used hunderds of pounds of it personally...

For painting the outside of the glass... I strongly recommend standard latex house paint. while ventilation is beneficial, the amount of fumes put off by doing this will be minimal and harmless.

 

[Joe M]

Thanks guys. I was leaning towards latex as well, and you and JK47 affirmed my thoughts. Any tips on application though? I'll be using a roller and Ive heard the first coat has a tendency to peel off the glass while applying a second coat.