Silica Sand

[JDogg]

Does anyone use Silica Sand in their tank? Do you like it better then gravel?

 

[DeFeKt]

yep and yep
looks great, easier to clean, somewhat *natural* for my malawi's,
with a few snails and small sharks, mine is always spotless.

 

[krap101]

i use it in one of my tanks. that tank seems to get a little more algae than the others. (more like 5-6x more?)

 

[Legacy]

I use it in my archer tank. Zero algae, ever! You can easily siphon stuff off the bottom too. Best part is it's only $3.68/per 30lb bag. Wash it well before you use it though since there's a lot of dust and clay mixed in there.

 

[BillD]

There are good and bad points. It is sharp grained, and is bad news if it gets sucked into the impeller. In the finer grain sizes it will tend to compact. In addition, it is ugly (garish) and unnatural looking.
On the plus side it is cheap.

 

[Zagz]

Another cheap and natural sand is pool filter sand. No sharp edges and fish seem to love it.

 

[JDogg]

Another cheap and natural sand is pool filter sand. No sharp edges and fish seem to love it.

ok so pool sand is better, can you get that at like a home depot?
how do you clean the sand? can you use a gravel vac?

thanks for all the help!

 

[rich311k]

Most people put it in a bucket about half full. Stick in a hose and rinse and stir until the water runs clear. TheN repeat until you have as much as you want in the tank. Yes you can use a gravel vacuum with it.

 

[Zagz]

I don't know if home depot near you sells it, ours does. Also most pool supply stores sell it cheap. Gravel vac by waving the wand over the sand and the gunk gets sucked up. As with all sand it will have to be stirred once in a while to avoid gas pockets.

 

[jbarr]

Is it too sharp for bottom-dwellers? Say a kuhli loach? Is it sharp enough to cut the fish, or irritate snails?

 

[bs6749]

I use pool filter sand in my 55 gallon tank with 8 GBR's that dig pits when they spawn, and 2 BN plecos that are all over the place, and I have never had a problem with it hurting the fish in any way. Loaches sould be fine but may prefer a finer grain substrate. The nice things about pfs are: it is CHEAP ( I spent $8 for a 40 or 50 lb bag and didn't even use all of it in my 55 gallon), it looks nice (in my opinion at least), and it is easy to clean compared to other substrates.

About the gas buildup problem... I am not sure how often you need to stir because I clean my tank about every week and a half or two weeks at the most, which should get rid of any gas that has been built up, and have never seen any gas that escaped in an area that wasn't planted. I have changed my live plants around many times and the only time that I ever see a buildup is when I move the aponogeton that is a bulb plant. My numerous swords, wisteria, anacharis, jungle vals, etc. never had any gas escape from under them when I moved them.

 

[kmgriff72]

Do you have any problems with sand clogging up a canister filter? I have a Fluval 404.

Could you post some pictures of the Silica sand.

 

[jbarr]

What about clogging a HOB?

I suppose I'll look for a pool supply store.
Hope my dad doesn't mind, we just bought 3 bags of this silica play sand.
Shame on me for not researching.
I suggested pfs but he insisted we just go to home depot.
Augh.