thanks, I do have a petsmart. I'll check and see what they have in stock.John Doe said:I'm not sure, I saw that at Petsmart and asked about it. They told me they had black caribsea normal sand for cheaper. I mixed 20 lbs of it with 100 lbs of pool filter sand for a nice greyish salt and pepper look.
Not sure if you have petsmart in your area but you might check there.
I thought so, but wasn't sure.DJRansome said:You don't want to use live sand in a freshwater tank.
I washed out my pool filter sand yesterday and it wasn't very dirty. The water ran clear in about 15 minutes. I mixed it up good, stirring as I rinsed. It's not as white as I was thinking it was going to be so I'll have to see how it all looks with the rocks.Piper said:I recently set up a 55G Malawi tank with playground sand. It is very white and fine and takes a good deal of washing. I am working on a 20G quarantine/fry tank and inquired about pool filter sand and they warned me about it containing a lot of dust. Quikrete is available at most home supply stores and they have course, medium and fine as well as the playground sand. I just picked up a bag for course to see how I like it. Through the bag, it looks like very small gravel mixed with sand.
Adding sand with fish shouldn't be an issue with the fish if it is well washed and it is placed fairly gently.
I was going to put my rocks first if I used my yard rocks, but these rocks are hollow and dont weigh much so I will just twist them into the sand. I figure the bottom ones I might even fill with sand a bit.DJRansome said:Remember you want to put in the rocks first. So there is no substrate underneath for the fish to dig out and topple everything.
Thanks, I think I might get some more of them so I can stack them a little higher. Still looking at other things too. I'm hoping the LFS I get my fish at will have somthing cool I can put in there as something extra for them to swim through.Flippercon said:Very nice set up. I need to get me some of those cichlid stones. :thumb:
Yeah I should clarify on the clarity... the water looks clear if you have standard lighting. I have LEDs so I get the spotlight effect with any fine particle suspended in the water column. If you aren't using LEDs you probably will never notice what I'm talking about.Flippercon said:The pfs is by far the easiest sand to clean. I just did two 55's and 2 29's in pfs all of them are clear and its been less then a week. I find using pillow cases to rinse sand is the easiest way to rinse the stuff.