Substrate help?

[Morgie]

In my new 55 (completely empty, not even water) I was thinking of using a mixture of natural, rounded river gravel as well as sand to make an interesting aquascape as well as to provide some relief for my catfishes barbels. The only residents I have decided that I am DEFINITELY getting for this tank so far are my four-line pictus catfish (who's about 8-10") and two sun catfish that I'll have to purchase and grow a little bit at the LFS... But anyway. About the substrate. I was looking at the sands they had at the LFS and they were about 30$ for a small bag, and that just seemed a little much to me. I know it's all about the softness of the grains, but I've also heard of people using home depot play sand in their tanks? Is this possible with heavy washing? Would it harm my fish? Or should I just bite the bullet and buy the expensive "professional" stuff??

 

[mom2reds]

I would go with pool filter sand lots of people on here use it,and it is cheap.

 

[BigJim]

I've used play sand, Quickrete Medium sand, and Black Blast blasting compound from my local home improvement stores. The play sand needed a lot of rinsing. The others really didn't.

 

[Morgie]

Okay! Thanks so much guys! I'm soo relieved I don't have to buy that expensive LFS stuff

 

[steeledarren]

i use play sand, i thought it would need alot of washing but it didnt really, left in a bucket in the bath with tap running, only took about 20 mins to run clear, i wanted pool filter sand but its pretty hard to come buy here in uk, i think proper aquarium sand is expensive, id go with either play sand or pool filter sand, play sand is cheap as chips