besides the cleaning of sand for initial setting up, what are some suggestions on which to use. i have a smaller tank setup with play sand and found it works ok besides plugging up my hang on filter once. seems to work for the live plants. i hear that pool filter sand has a more pleasing color .
pool filter sand vs play sand?
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i find pool filter sand to be more fine then playground sand. Pool sand is a bit more brighter because its more white but i just went with playground like you
Here we go again, lol. I've used both of these in my tank. I did not like the Play Sand and removed all 100lb of it to replace it with PFS and to this day I am very happy w/ the PFS.
IME the play sand that I used (which was just the cheap 50lb bags at Home Depot) clouds up much easier and takes longer to settle. A slight tap from a fish makes large smoke clouds. Also, as far as I know play sand isn't designed to be submerged in water so this could likely be one of the reason it clouds up so easily. Also, when I bought my Play Sand it had MUCH more dirt and random debris in it and had to be rinsed multiple times and still kept having cloudy water coming out of the bucket.
The PFS (also just the regular 50lb bag from Home Depot) rinsed very easily, didn't have random debris through it, and settled extremely fast in my tank and doesn't cloud up like the Play Sand did. If it pops up from a fish it settles back down in seconds and creates no cloud. I added the PFS with my tank running and water in there. It cleared up over night. The Play Sand was added before adding the water and setting up the tank. It took I think like 3-4 days if I remember correctly, before it finally cleared up.
Also, my Play Sand would start to turn a dull color and sometimes left green on my acrylic and just looked "old." (can't think of a better word to describe this) My girl friend had PFS in her 40g at the same time and hers never did this and always looked nice under water.
These are all IME with the two sands. I am extremely glad I made the switch to PFS and wouldn't ever use play sand in one of my tanks again.
IME the play sand that I used (which was just the cheap 50lb bags at Home Depot) clouds up much easier and takes longer to settle. A slight tap from a fish makes large smoke clouds. Also, as far as I know play sand isn't designed to be submerged in water so this could likely be one of the reason it clouds up so easily. Also, when I bought my Play Sand it had MUCH more dirt and random debris in it and had to be rinsed multiple times and still kept having cloudy water coming out of the bucket.
The PFS (also just the regular 50lb bag from Home Depot) rinsed very easily, didn't have random debris through it, and settled extremely fast in my tank and doesn't cloud up like the Play Sand did. If it pops up from a fish it settles back down in seconds and creates no cloud. I added the PFS with my tank running and water in there. It cleared up over night. The Play Sand was added before adding the water and setting up the tank. It took I think like 3-4 days if I remember correctly, before it finally cleared up.
Also, my Play Sand would start to turn a dull color and sometimes left green on my acrylic and just looked "old." (can't think of a better word to describe this) My girl friend had PFS in her 40g at the same time and hers never did this and always looked nice under water.
These are all IME with the two sands. I am extremely glad I made the switch to PFS and wouldn't ever use play sand in one of my tanks again.
yes it would be sand from home depot also. the play sand settled in over night for me but the sand is getting dark spots in random places i try to siphon it up but that doesnt work to well haha. that is in about a 2 month time frame. so im thinking maybe the pool sand will be better in the long run. how do the live plants do in your tank if you have any