Sand recommendations and a warning about quikrete sand!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I've used Quickcrete with no issues and very little rinsing. Strange you have issues.

My favorite is Crystal Sand brand. Cleanest I use.


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I've used Quickcrete with no issues and very little rinsing. Strange you have issues.

My favorite is Crystal Sand brand. Cleanest I use.


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Which type of quikrete did you use? It's possible you used a different type than I did? But as the pictures showed, even after we rinse the sand off in buckets, it was still ridiculously dirty. I kind of figured it would be a little cloudy, but we had to make use with what we had living in an apartment. What I didn't expect was even after I gave it a chance to clear up, it continues to be terrible and I'm a clean freak. And when I mean clean freak, I mean ocd cleaning even the tanks at work with a toothbrush. Customers chuckle and always comment how immaculate the tanks are and how they've never seen someone sit there and scrub corners and spots so meticulously and often. This sand has been an ocd nightmare, I don't understand how I put up with it for so long.
 
This is my 350 with pool filter sand in it and as you can see I have geo's that sift it all day. I've never had an issue with pool filter sand ever:

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Which type of quikrete did you use? It's possible you used a different type than I did? But as the pictures showed, even after we rinse the sand off in buckets, it was still ridiculously dirty. I kind of figured it would be a little cloudy, but we had to make use with what we had living in an apartment. What I didn't expect was even after I gave it a chance to clear up, it continues to be terrible and I'm a clean freak. And when I mean clean freak, I mean ocd cleaning even the tanks at work with a toothbrush. Customers chuckle and always comment how immaculate the tanks are and how they've never seen someone sit there and scrub corners and spots so meticulously and often. This sand has been an ocd nightmare, I don't understand how I put up with it for so long.

Not 100% sure on type of quickcrete, but Ive been hooked on Crystal Sand for awhile......

135 with about 80lbs mixed with 20lbs of ecco complete and the 300 with about 200lbs CS brand pool filter sand. Second pic is as it was added to the 135

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i have the quickcrete pool filter sand in my 120 and have had no issues at all. even when my fish stir it up it only takes about 10 min to settle again. real cheap too. i think it was about 6 bucks for a 50 pound bag.
 
Hello ; A practice that served me well when I used sand was to dry sift it before doing any cleaning. I would use a homemade screen or just a colander. This allows the fine, dust like stuff, to be discarded. After this it will need to be rinsed well as with any other substrate like gravel or sand. Sand takes a lot more rinsing that gravel in my experience. I would use a bucket, hose and a smooth stick to stir up the dirt and pour it off.

I have used construction sand as it was cheap and I was able to discard what I did not want. I discovered a wide variety of sand particles in this kind of sand. I could adjust the size of the final particles desired by the size of the screen used.

Some particles can be quite large and will be more like gravel. This can help to avoid the "toxin" pockets that can form in fine sand from anaerobic bacteria growth. The fine sand also tends to get stirred up and has caused damage to filter impellers. While I have grown plants in sand, the finer stuff has not done so well as a more coarse gravel or coarse sand.

Good luck.
 
One other thing I forgot to mention. I never rinse my pfs. I add it with fish in the tank quite often.

It's a uniform larger grain size so it sinks immediately, never staying in the water column for more than a few seconds.


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