Sand or no sand??

[Scoot35]

I purchased an aquarium from an individual and he had sand in the tank instead of gravel I decided to keep the sand in it because I like the look of it. The guy said it was play sand, my question is, is it safe for my fresh water fish I've had one pet store owner say it isn't and another said it is. Confused?

 

[CoryFan]

Yes, many of us have used it. However, it is very fine so it gets stirred up easily & can even get up into your filter, damaging the impeller over time. So please be careful about stirring it up!
Pool filter sand is a heavier grade that I use now. There are pics in my profile.

 

[Scoot35]

Yes, many of us have used it. However, it is very fine so it gets stirred up easily & can even get up into your filter, damaging the impeller over time. So please be careful about stirring it up!
Pool filter sand is a heavier grade that I use now. There are pics in my profile.

Thank you

 

[CoryFan]

Thank you

My pleasure! Sand is lots easier to clean than gravel. I love it!
Congrats on the new tank, too.

 

[Scoot35]

What do you use to clean your sand, do you think it would be ok to put the pool sand over my existing sand

 

[Scoot35]

Oh your tanks look awesome

 

[CoryFan]

Thank you! I really learned a lot on this forum.

I haven't tried layering these sands, but I don't think it would be a problem.

I just use my pwc hose and hold it near the sand to clean mine routinely.

Rinse it before you use it - in a bucket - to remove dust. Otherwise that first time in the tank is pretty cloudy!

If you stick the hose into your playsand, you can just suck it out of your tank too.

 

[Scoot35]

Yeah I just recently found this site and I love it its very informative and very helpful I browsed around on here for about two hours today