Saltwater Sand

[Rich42082]

Anyone know of a good website for saltwater sand or cost effective alternative to live sand? I have heard of buying pool filter sand at homedepot. Has anyone tried this?

 

[wapparia]

Not sure what country your in but i live in uk and if i cant get them from lfs i always use ebay. sometimes little bit more expensive but its nearly always there.

 

[carey]

I used pool filter sand from home depot and love it! I am using it in my upcoming 90g build as well. It runs about $5 for 50lbs.

I havent had any algae issues or any other problem with it, its small grain but not too small.

 

[Zakwhite]

Not sure what country your in but i live in uk and if i cant get them from lfs i always use ebay. sometimes little bit more expensive but its nearly always there.

You live in my country wooooo

 

[MDChurch]

I also bought sand from Home Depot and it is great! Best thing I could have done for the tank. No algae issues,, looks nice and clean, looks more natural like the sea bottom. Got rid of the crushed coral and glad I did!!

 

[wapparia]

It's not fair because it is impossible to get a lot of the items that are available in America. The other place to try are garden centres that have aquatic. I use dobbies garden centre because they have a more varied range but once again are more expensive than if you hit pets at home when they have a new stock. Hope this helps. This web site is great aswel the people on here are really helpfull

 

[xxStLxx]

I use natures ocean #2 samoa pink sand and love it. I got a 20lb bag for around 12 bucks and it was live sand so I didnt have to worry about it curing in my tank.

 

[yetee]

depending on where you are from there are a lot of cost effective alternatives. here in utah, our home depot/lowes sand is silica based so thats not a very good choice. However, we have oolitic sand that can be collected from certain places by the great salt lake (it is the exact same chemical make up as aragonite, but is all perfectly round beads that are quite small).

some places back east their play sand is aragonite sand.

 

[kdine6]

For those using the Home Depot sand, is there a specific brand name to use or something specific to look for?

 

[carey]

Here is a picture of the sand I got from home depot

 

[kdine6]

Thanks Carey...guess I'm off to the Depot!

 

[carey]

Yep, just get the texture and size you like. I'm lucky in that the sand I've been getting at the depot is the perfect color and consistency in my opinion. Also, you will really really have to rinse it! It took me hours to do it last time, but you cant believe the gunk that comes out. For me it was worth saving a few hundred $$ since I happen to have the time for stuff like this.

 

[xxStLxx]

Did you rinse it in RO or salt water? And in a 5g bucket?

 

[carey]

I was a bad girl and used regular water from my garden hose. I used a 5g bucket and filled it like halfway up and then rinsed til clear water runs.

 

[xxStLxx]

Did you get any residual phosphate and silicate problems from doing that or did it work out. I'll admit that in the first year of doin SW when ever I had high nitrates I would suck out all my sand and wash it in a 5g bucket till it rinsed clear then added it back

 

[carey]

Nope no nitrates or phosphate issues. I get some diatoms here and there but nothing horrible, I'm guessing tis from my sand stirring creatures mucking up my sand bed. lol

if it's any indication I am also using pool filter sand in my 90g build, it's in the garage waiting to be rinsed. I had no issues with it, it's cheap and looks good to me.