Play sand sucks

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
mike dunagan

mike dunagan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 11, 2006
10,745
12
0
43
Pendleton, IN
www.freewebs.com
okay after a few months of play sand in my 135 I gave in and spent a few hours (4) taking it out with about 100lbs of lace rock... I then moved in pool filter sand. I filled it 3/4 of the way back up and waiting to clear to replace the rock...

I got tired of the pool sand making my quite filters so loud they woke me up in another room with the door closed. I will clean the filters out in a few weeks so that I do not lose of my bacteria, but I will post pics of the new setup soon...

Lesson here... play sand not worth the 6 bucks I saved...
 
i thought about going the cheap way but decided against it. i got the eco complete cichlid sand from drs foster and smith, 120#=$131.00. never had any problems with it, it cleared up in about 1.5 days and i think it looks great. the fish love to dig and pile it up.
 
The pool sand I bought looks about like my arognite that I spend over a hundred on... so I am betting it will be fine... I was stubborn and thought I would make play sand work...
 
what will you use for buffers? thats why i got the eco complete. it has argonite mixed with black silica sand. i like the buffering substrates. never worry about adding chems
 
Mike, it depends on what kind of filter. I had to stop using a H.O.T. filter on my sandy tanks because of sand getting sucked up and making noise (and worse). But with my Fluval canister, sand would have to go through all the media to even get to the impeller. Same with a wet dry. NO possible problems.
Besides, if you switch to a wet/dry, RALLYSMAN gets a commission for another referral!:D
 
I have one wet/dry, and this will be switched over soon too. I am waiting for the new tanks. I will then hook up a wetdry to it... but I need to have a place to put all the fish...
 
so far about a week now. I did 100lbs of #20 Pool filter sand for ~$15-$20 bucks, and its looking great (would have prefered a little darker color) but still better looking than typical aquaarium gravel...
 
I hate to hit a man while he is down... but, I know that you read everything on thing site about substraight----why did you not use the crushed quartz pool filter sand. It is a bit coarser than sand and more importantly, pre-rinsed?
 
I got it all cleaned and it looked great, just finally got tired of cleaning the filters out since they were making so much noise... Plus I was going to have a sump when I started the tank, but I filled it without putting the sump under the tank... was in a hurry to move everything... when I went to put the sump under it was too big for the little doors... I will put the sump in soon...

and mostly I am stubborn
 
I know you've already got you tank set up with pool sand, but something that is comparable for any one else looking to set up a tank with that look, blast sand works really well, and is clean but maybe more importantly, CHEAP... like 8.99 for 50 lbs. And not a pain in the @$$ like play sand.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom