Buckeyeboyd
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2015
- Messages
- 13
I just bought a 150 gallon tank and i'm going to have around a dozen corey's for the bottom. Is pool filter sand an ok substrate? My filter is a Fluval FX6.
Substrate Pool sand?
- Thread starter Buckeyeboyd
- Start date
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MissGurnus
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Yes! Just be sure to rise/wash it beforehand, and be careful when doing water changes. If substrate is still in the water column wait until it settles before turning your filter on or it might clogg
Sini's my personal bucket lugger..er, I mean husband
Sini's my personal bucket lugger..er, I mean husband
coralbandit
Aquarium Advice Addict
PFS is good stuff.
Rinse well and enjoy as MissG said.
Rinse well and enjoy as MissG said.
Exigenn
Aquarium Advice Freak
I just bought 100ibs myself for my tank. I was rinsing for hours, it was coming out some kind of redish color. my tanks still cloudy as heck, after a few hours though it already started to clear a bit. $8 for 50ibs
MissGurnus
Aquarium Advice FINatic
The best and most thorough way to wash your sand is a few lb's at a time in a five gallon bucket in my experience. Might take a while but for the price it's worth it
Sini's my personal bucket lugger..er, I mean husband
Sini's my personal bucket lugger..er, I mean husband
HooKooDooKu
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I find sand to be an excellent sub-strait. You just need to wash it really good before hand.
Put some in a 5g bucket and fill it with water. Get the water spinning really well such that all the sand is moving with the water column. Then let the bucket sit for just a few seconds and then quickly pour the water out along with everything that is still in the water column (without dumping the sand that has settled in just those few seconds).
Once you've done this a few times with each batch of sand (the batches have to be small enough that you can get all the sand up and spinning in the water column at first), you will be left with a some very dense sand that will easily sink to the bottom of your tank and never get hung in the water column.
Once rinsed well, you should be able to fill a tank with water, dump a bunch of sand in, and in less than 1 minute, the water should be clear.
What I will say about pool sand specifically is that it is a very large granule sand... actually something on the order of tiny rocks. I find play sand or other fine sands to be much more appealing in a fish tank.
Put some in a 5g bucket and fill it with water. Get the water spinning really well such that all the sand is moving with the water column. Then let the bucket sit for just a few seconds and then quickly pour the water out along with everything that is still in the water column (without dumping the sand that has settled in just those few seconds).
Once you've done this a few times with each batch of sand (the batches have to be small enough that you can get all the sand up and spinning in the water column at first), you will be left with a some very dense sand that will easily sink to the bottom of your tank and never get hung in the water column.
Once rinsed well, you should be able to fill a tank with water, dump a bunch of sand in, and in less than 1 minute, the water should be clear.
What I will say about pool sand specifically is that it is a very large granule sand... actually something on the order of tiny rocks. I find play sand or other fine sands to be much more appealing in a fish tank.
