Type of Sand for substrate?

[jetajockey]

I've used a lot of 3m colorquartz which I think is similar to spectraquartz, but either way it did have to be rinsed a bit to get the dust and particles out of it. Nothing like rinsing playsand though.

PFS is usually pretty easy to rinse also because it tends to have a more uniform grain size.

 

[Hobgob]

Yes u am confused about the spectra stuff.'when you rinse sand your trying to get the dust out if t so it doesn't make the tank cloudy. How does spectra not have any dust in t? That is impossible unless none if the sand is moving inside of it. Each time someone picks up a bag a little bit of erosion goes on when the sand rubs against each other. This would create dust which is why your tank was cloudy and also you had floating sand...

 

[Hobgob]

I bought a used tank that housed large Oscars. There was alot of hard water stains and bad fish odor. I soaked and scrubbed it with White vinager and baking soda, and scrubbed with both. Lots of soaking and rinsing. Wanna do it right

Seems like you spent way to long cleaning it. I bought a 110g used and holy crap. The inside was black! So dirty and the smelly. It only took 2 hours to clean it. But I used a bleach and water mixture

 

[Matt68005]

Play or concrete sand is really not that attractive, expecially after its been used for awhile.

 

[Hobgob]

Play or concrete sand is really not that attractive, expecially after its been used for awhile.

It person has their own likes and dislikes. But myself, I love my pfs and I don't think I would buy anything else

 

[Terrance]

Yes u am confused about the spectra stuff.'when you rinse sand your trying to get the dust out if t so it doesn't make the tank cloudy. How does spectra not have any dust in t? That is impossible unless none if the sand is moving inside of it. Each time someone picks up a bag a little bit of erosion goes on when the sand rubs against each other. This would create dust which is why your tank was cloudy and also you had floating sand...

Not sure why I didnt get any clouding. I opened the bag of Spectra, then dumped some sand in my tank. Some sand float and some air bubbles was stuck at the substrate, but no clouding at all. Then i ran my filter. All the air bubble and floating sand went away after 2days.

There are 16 different colors and you can choose between 3 or 4 different sand sizes.

 

[Hobgob]

Not sure why I didnt get any clouding. I opened the bag of Spectra, then dumped some sand in my tank. Some sand float and some air bubbles was stuck at the substrate, but no clouding at all. Then i ran my filter. All the air bubble and floating sand went away after 2days.

There are 16 different colors and you can choose between 3 or 4 different sand sizes.

Ok but it still has dust in it which should be washed out. When sand or gravel rubs against itself it erodes and creates dust which is what I don't understand. I myself would still rinse it out. With my pfs I had no clouding or floating sand. Maybe if it was rinsed it wouldnt have done the same...

 

[gregcuoz]

Headed to my local home depot to see what kind of sand they have. I gotta get the ball rolling on my cycle asap

 

[jetajockey]

If you go with the larger grain sizes you will have less clouding. It's still a good idea to rinse any sand beforehand just in case.

Colorquartz (not sure about spectra) is a ceramic coated quartz sand, so it never loses its color and since it's smooth it doesn't grind down into dust like other sand does. It still does it, but not nearly as much as playsand or PFS.

 

[Joe5688]

And larger sand doesn't get sucked up as easily as fine sand

 

[Terrance]

If you go with the larger grain sizes you will have less clouding. It's still a good idea to rinse any sand beforehand just in case.

Colorquartz (not sure about spectra) is a ceramic coated quartz sand, so it never loses its color and since it's smooth it doesn't grind down into dust like other sand does. It still does it, but not nearly as much as playsand or PFS.

Spectra is not ceramic coated. All of my sand are the smallest, smoothest sand they had available. I needed these fine sand because my previous Congo puffer buried himself all the time. Now I have a fahaka puffer that buries. For both, I needed a sand that was soft enough for them to bury and not scratch their skin. When I rub the sand in between my finger, it doesn't break off any tiny pieces (erroding).

Not my puffer, but I think this gravel looks dangerous for burying.
YouTube

 

[Hobgob]

Spectra is not ceramic coated. All of my sand are the smallest, smoothest sand they had available. I needed these fine sand because my previous Congo puffer buried himself all the time. Now I have a fahaka puffer that buries. For both, I needed a sand that was soft enough for them to bury and not scratch their skin. When I rub the sand in between my finger, it doesn't break off any tiny pieces (erroding).

Not my puffer, but I think this gravel looks dangerous for burying.
http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=ymeB-m3QKKE

Trust me erosion happens. Two things could happen. You could just be rubbing the sand on your hands which would not erode at the sand and/or the pieces breaking off are two small to see. JG will even happen in your tank constantly.

 

[Hobgob]

I just put some sand into a ten gallon yesterday. I used sand that I rinsed previously. Didn't remove any water and just dumped it into the tank. Worked great! A little cloudy but it is basically cleared up now and there were no floaters either...