# Fresh Water Sand



## Neon_Tetra (Oct 21, 2005)

Where do you get fresh water sand? Any would it work with my undergravel or how else do I keep it clean?


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## wildtiger (Jun 8, 2005)

If you have a ugf you'll want to avoid sand. Sand works best with a hob or canister type filter.

There are quite a few companies out there that make sand for the FW tank, however if you want to go cheap generally you can go to you local home/garden type store and pick up a bag of play sand. About 50 lbs for under $4.00, the big thing with this stuff it is has to be rinsed alot as it's pretty dirty.

They do make Tahitian moon sand which is black (you may can get your lfs to order it for you) and they also make a couple of different sands for cichlids.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Use pool sand over play sand. Its inert, dirt (no pun intended) cheap, and just as easy to find.


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

Why is pool sand better? Is play sand not inert?


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Play sand has a tendancy to compact more than pool sand. Pool sand is also cleaner. Play sand may or may not be 100% silica sand. Pool sand is.


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## heatherhoge (Nov 13, 2005)

I would stay away from play or pool sand if you are going to have bottom dwelers. When the sand is made they add other items to it like glass. This sand they don't make shift or stain with small shifters as they do with real aquarium sand. What wont hurt a child can hurt a fish. Aquarium sand doesn't have these sharp objects in it since sifted out with finer shifters. The freshwater true sand is hard to find in my area but I have it ordered by a pet store that does special order. You may be able to buy it on line. If your not going to have bottom dwelers then the other sand may be fine. I have seen bootm dwelers get injured from the play sand.


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## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

I used home improvement sand, and I have tons of bottom dwellers in a number of those tanks and they all seem to be doing fine.


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## tv4184 (Sep 2, 2005)

How do you wash sand? Its so fine...I usually use a noodle strainer with my gravel...but of course that wouldn't be able to wash sand? I was wondering about the same topic too...how much is real aquarium sand supposed to cost?


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## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

Real aquarium sand is pretty expensive I think. I've seen it to be around 5 - 10 dollars for 5 pounds of it. That's why I went with the play sand. 

The way I washed it was I dumped a little bit into a bucket and then poured water into it. As the water level rose, many of the dust particles and dirt will float. That way you can dump out the water with all of the dirt. The sand is more dense so it will stay towards the bottom, but sometimes it will get kicked up into the water as well. Dump out the water, and then fill it up again, trying to stir around the sand so that you do not miss any dead spots where the water might not get to. Doing this for play sand takes a long time, and took me a few hours to do enough sand for a 10 gallon tank. 

Also when cleaning out ur sand, make sure you don't get any sand down your sink or where ever you are doing it. If enough sand gets into your plumbing your water won't drain as fast and could even clog. I'm pretty sure this could happen, but it hasn't happened to me, so I can't say for sure. Just be careful.


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