Can you use normal childrens play sand to put in with my Oscars tank ?
And will this harm the fish in any way?
And will this harm the fish in any way?
Play Sand
- Thread starter clarius catfish
- Start date
Fish will be fine, but the consensus seems to be that it's too fine and may get sucked into + damage filters. Pool filter sand would be better.
Learn from my mistake. When I first switched to sand from gravel, I used ordinary playsand. I washed it forever it seemed but still it was cloudy. Not knowing what I doing, I put it in my tank anyway and it was a nightmare, I couldn't get my water clear. Plus every little movement made more dust clouds. I asked some people about it and was told to use pool filter sand. I then removed all the nasty playsand and started over. I immeditately knew the pool filter sand was better when I put some in a bucket to wash it and it was practically already clean. It costs a few buck more per bag but well worth the price.
Man you guys really had trouble with the playsand. I had an 18in pleco that came with my 80gal, which i found a better home for, but he would always stir the sand up into my filters and whatnot. I didnt wash it at all either. Needless to say my tank was muuuuuurky! Just mass amounts of water changes. My filters somehow survived. Probably 3 weeks to get it crystal clear and now i do like the looks of it more than my tank with pool filter sand. Its very "fluffy". The dust clouds are a pain, but if you have the patience its fine. The small grains work their way out eventually.
i have play sand in my 220 and my friend has it in his 180 and it is of course cloudy to begin with but nothing to drastic just like you get with all sands i would say go for it its nice and cheap, iv had no problems it settled after a day or 2 and my tank is crystal clear so thumbs up from me
Several of my tanks have playsand and several have PFS. They both work great but, as mentioned, the play sand stays cloudy longer no matter how much you rinse it because it contains a little clay and the grain is finer. It's also harder to clean and the python always manages to snag some. Plants do FAR better in playsand though.
Some playsand sand must be worse than others but from what I'm hearing, it sounds like an awful lot of headache and aggrivation to save a couple of dollars. Cecropia mentioned it does better with a planted tank which I can't vouch for because plants and large cichlids don't mix. I'm sticking with my opinion that if you go with playsand, you'll probably wish you didn't.