Sand

[Letmein]

i have a 55g and i was thinking of switching to sand for the bottom of the fish tank. i was going to go to lowes or home depo and get some playground sand. will that work. i dont wan2 spend over 20 bucks

 

[MDK500]

Clean the sand before putting it inside the tank. Don't take out all of the gravel at one time or It will kill off a lot of BB.

 

[Letmein]

how do u mean clean it

 

[haynchinook334]

I would go with pool filter sand....much easier to clean. Just put the sand in pillow case and run a water hose in the pillow case in till you see the water is clean coming out of the bottom of pillow case.

 

[Letmein]

smart thinkin i like that idea. how long does it take the sand to settle to the bottom wear your water is clear agin. and does the sand get sucked up into the filter. and how do you clean it? woulndnt the vacum suck up the sand to when trying to clean the waste up

 

[seds]

if you have a sump put your gravel in there and take out a bit of it every day. That is what I am going to do when I get sand.

WHich will be soon.

 

[Letmein]

i dont have a sump

 

[chesterthehero]

pool sand is much easyer to clean than play sand

 

[FSM]

play sand is really dirty. pool filter sand (actually made for swimming pool sand filters) is much cleaner. Go to a pool supply store and ask for some. I got mine from a place called Leslie's pool supply; its like $8 for 50 lbs which will be plenty.

 

[Arturo]

Pool filter sand is the best choice, easy to clean and when you siphone it, it does not go all over the tank.