pool filter sand

[cogburn]

okay... now we're about a month away from the house being done... tank is ordered... i need to get pool filter sand... is one brand better than another or will pretty much any sand do? for instance.... is this good?... HTH POOL FILTER SAND 50 lbs. 61308 ARCH CHEMICAL

for 180 gallon tank i was thinking 200 lbs?... good bad... more less?... lemme know oh great experts... and thanks in advance...

Larry

 

[buddha_red]

FantasyReef Calculators

they have a calculator that takes your tanks size and tells you how mch sand you would need. HTH

 

[cogburn]

have to be logged in to use those... but thanks for the help

 

[buddha_red]

whats the deminsions of your tank? i can look it up for you

 

[buddha_red]

i ran the numbers as 72 1/2 x 24 1/2 and it told me 200 lbs for 2 inches

 

[cogburn]

thats what i figured... thanks... 2" is what im aiming for... so 200 lbs it is... my oscars in their temp tank are picking up gravel and spitting it out all the time... got a piece stuck for about an hour the other day til he could finally spit it out... so i know gravel wont work... gonna have to go with sand

 

[cogburn]

other question... is there anything i need to look for when i buy it?... certain brands... certain types of sand?

 

[BillD]

Oscars have been kept with gravel for many years without issue. Most filter sands are just plains silica sand of an appropriate grain size for pool filters. If you could find blasting sand of the same grain size it would work equally well. Problem for me is that most silica sand is pretty white, which I don't like. My prefernce is for something like this Sand and Gravel Water Filtration Media - Red Flint The pool filter sand and the aquarium sand are the same grain size so either would work and they look more natural than white sand.

 

[marchmaxima]

Just personally, I like the white sand..... That said, it does get yucky and shows up algae really quickly, and since I haven't tracked down the source of the extra nutrients, I get around that by scooping out the top layer and boiling it. I do that once every 3 months and it looks as good as new!