Play sand or pool sand? Pros? Cons?

[carey]

I happen to LOVE the narsicus(sp?) snails, will they work in a DSB of PFS? The grains are kinda larger. I also wanted a sand sifting star and a sifting goby.

I am 99% sure I'm gonna go with the PFS. I figure I'll pick it up on Saturday and start rinsing, it's gonna take days! lol

 

[meegosh]

Carey,

If you are going to be rinsing a large amount of sand I would suggest the pillow case trick. Basically, put 10-20lbs of sand in a pillow case, put your hose into and stir the sand around until it runs clear out of the case. After that, dump it in the tank or in another container.

I used this on the past two tanks I set up and it has saved me tons of time. I used it with both Quickrete's Premium Playsand and AquaQuartz's Pool Filter Sand.

 

[carey]

Neat trick! I had almost forgotten about that! That should save me some time for sure!

Was the playsand harder to clean btw Meegosh?

thanks very much!

 

[Mr. Limpet]

+1

The pillow case trick IMO, is the only way to rinse PFS. I tried the bucket method once and it was a pain. Plus I re-rinsed that same load in a pillow case and got more dust out than what I removed via the bucket. Only I rinse it in the shower since I have a hand wand and it makes easy peasy .

 

[Purevil21]

Can you rinse sand with tap?

 

[carey]

Haven't given it much thought as to where I would rinse it. i don't have the hand wand in my showers since I moved. :-( I do have one in the kitchen but not sure I want the sand getting into my garbage disposal.

Guess I'll be outside with the garden hose and some pillowcases and lots and lots of buckets and bins.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Can you rinse sand with tap?

I do and don't see it as an issue. I put cured (Prime) water in the tank after I have the substrate set, so any chlorine/et al is dealt with IMO. Haven't had any problems to date.

Don't forget the plate trick when adding water to a sand bed, it keeps the sand in place and there's literally no stir. If you don't know the trick, put a dinner size plate (or whatever fits in your tank) on the sand and pour onto the plate. Works like a charm .

 

[scottayy]

This might be an idea! I don't know if it will be good or bad, lol.

Since your tank is empty, why not just put it all in the tank and put a HOB filter on there, and stir up the sand occasionally?

 

[carey]

This might be an idea! I don't know if it will be good or bad, lol.

Since your tank is empty, why not just put it all in the tank and put a HOB filter on there, and stir up the sand occasionally?

LOL If it were only that easy!! I wish i could fill it up with ro/di water and then add salt and just mix. Then shoot the sand down... but I guess thats not practical. What's also not practical is me mixing 4 gallon buckets of sw and filling a 125g 4gallons at a time.

But I'm veering off topic, my bad....

 

[Purevil21]

I used a pie dish, no sand kick up at all.

 

[Purevil21]

Plus I put a trash bag over the sand bed.

 

[carey]

I actually used my everyday fine china dinner plate in my cube when i filled it. LOL My mother would have killed me for putting mikasa into the fish tank!

I gotta be honest though, I didnt' notice much as far as improvement. Still took a good day to settle down. I was thinking on not putting sand in one corner and then just filling it in when I finsh filling it.

 

[Gti_Leo]

the nassarius snails should be fine in pool filter sand the grains are probably 1mm in size which is fine.

i love my nassarius snails also, they are super fun to watch during mysis shrimp feeding time

 

[Purevil21]

You have to use the trash bag over the sand bed, then you place you plate over that, I had almost no sand kick up when I did this.

 

[Gti_Leo]

lol just use a form of mechanical filtration to filter any of the dust thats floating around. its easier then messign around with bads and plates

 

[Mr. Limpet]

You have to use the trash bag over the sand bed, then you place you plate over that, I had almost no sand kick up when I did this.

Why the trash bag? I had near zero sand kick-up with the plate method and bucket pour. If you're using a python, perhaps turn the water down so it isn't at fire hose volume .

 

[meegosh]

Neat trick! I had almost forgotten about that! That should save me some time for sure!

Was the playsand harder to clean btw Meegosh?

thanks very much!

It isn't really harder to clean, you just can't shove the vacuum down into the substrate like you can with regular gravel or PFS. With Playsand you have to swirl it around above the substrate to get the detritus into the vacuum.

 

[leftyfish]

+1 on you don't want to clean the sand, let the cuc do it. You don't want to release the nitrates before they are converted to nitrogen gas, correct? And not too much nitrogen at one time.

Nassarius rock, mine come out of the sand as soon as I drop food in the tank. I also love my fighting conch, totally buries himself except his eyes.

 

[Gti_Leo]

its not about releasing the nitrates its about trapping organics in the sand. there is a possibility tbat they can decompose and if the gas isn't released it could turn into hydrogeon sulfide. for the first month or so its imparitive that you leave a DSB alone so it can build up its nitrifying critters. you also don't want to syphon the sand as this will remove the life in the sand bed defeating the porpous of a DSB

 

[Greenmaster]

The biggest reason not to get play/pool sand is that it isn't calcium based and if you plan on going reef it means you are going to have to dose a lot more the you otherwise would have to.