Sand in a pond?

[Tcal01]

I was wondering if I could put sand in my 40g pond and if so, how would I go about cleaning it before I put it in to make sure it is safe for the fish?

 

[PHP]

Sand would work just fine.

Personally, I would just keep the pond bare bottom or keep what ever you still have in there.

Just make sure to stir up the sand every weekend to keep from Nitrogen Gas bubbles from building up, but other than that, not really much cleaning.

 

[Tcal01]

I just want some contrast on the bottom so that u can see the fish better. I was gonna just go get some sand from a local park lol. But how would I go about sterilizing it before I put it in? Definitely do not want ecolli(not sure if that us spelled right :/) sand in my pond.

 

[Tcal01]

Should I put it in boiling water or soak it in salt water or something?

 

[Tcal01]

I really need some advice. Thanks for any thing u can contribute.

 

[bigbanker]

Grab a bag of pool filter sand from the hardware store. About 8 bucks a bag and is pale in color. Wash/rinse until the water runs clear and try it out in your pond

 

[New]

Grab a bag of pool filter sand from the hardware store. About 8 bucks a bag and is pale in color. Wash/rinse until the water runs clear and try it out in your pond

+1 this is how to prepare sand IMO

 

[PHP]

It's really hard to boil sand.

And as other recommend, I would as well like to say that using the sand from a local park could be unsafe for your pond. It would be best that you go out and buy some new sand.

How I clean my sand is:

- Put the sand in a 5 gallon bucket or so

- Turn on the sink and let the water over flow

- Wait til the water stops overflowing with murky water and when it starts to clear up

- Pour out extra water

- Put in tank

 

[Tcal01]

Omg thank u guys soooooo much. Not only am I a vey impatient person bit my little brothers hav been pestering me about it. Again, I really appreciate yur advice. Yur experience saves me a lot of time and research.

 

[PHP]

Your welcome, Tcal01.

 

[Tcal01]

Ok so I just went to home depot to look for pfs sand but they didn't hav it : /. So I got some cement sand. Is it ok for my pond? Here is a pic

 

[Tcal01]

So can I put it in or should I return it?

 

[ShadoeFox]

I'm kind of curious too. That looks like it'd be for cement...

 

[Tcal01]

I did some research online and I read that someone had used quickrette sand for their aquarium so I put it in last night after I rinsed it out and then put my fish in. when I checked on my fish this morning they seemed ok. One thing that I didn't like about it was that it is really fine so wen it gets wet it's almost like mud

 

[New]

did it cloud up a lot? (this is a problem i almost always have no matter how much i rinse)

 

[Tcal01]

Not as much as I thot it would. It still seem a littl cloudy even now but I think thats just because of the water feature