# White sand - where to find?



## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

I don't think that there was a person that after seeing this tank didn't get dizzy and had to sit down;
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/showthread.php?t=56945

It just so happened that last week my neighbour wanted to get rid of his 90 gallon tank and I convinced him to keep it and do a white sand/moss scape. I had great hopes about creating something really nice but Luis' tank blew me away. I'll be happy if we get even close to what he did.

So, down to the details:

Which white sand do you recommend? Does 3M make a white sand that is good? Is there another brand/product we should look into?

I don't want to spend the money for ADA's sand because of price considerations. Also we do not want anything that is off-white despite the threat of algae developing on the sand.

--Nikolay


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## plurmaster (Apr 1, 2008)

why not try pool filtered sand? the ones without sillica in it.


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## xpirtdesign (Dec 5, 2008)

play sand from home depot looks nice, or you can go with silver sand from your local landscaping store. very cheap and does the job


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## jeffrey richard (Jan 10, 2007)

plurmaster said:


> why not try pool filtered sand? the ones without sillica in it.


How do you know which pool sand does not have silica in it? Thanks


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## WhiteDevil (May 7, 2009)

it will say silica free on it.

I use caribsea marine sand in my tank, its planted.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

WhiteDevil said:


> it will say silica free on it.
> 
> I use caribsea marine sand in my tank, its planted.


pardon my ignorance.. wont sand from the sea mess up with the hardness and/or the ph of the water?


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## debbiedo7 (May 6, 2009)

Can't wait to see pictures of your creation


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## imeridian (Jan 17, 2007)

gooey said:


> pardon my ignorance.. wont sand from the sea mess up with the hardness and/or the ph of the water?


Yes. Aragonite sands will increase GH and KH (and correspondingly pH). They are ideal for African Cichlid and marine tanks, horrible for the typical planted tank.

Quartz/Silica sands are fine in a freshwater tank, just annoying to work with. I recommend against, strongly, the use of white play sand as a substrate. It gets into your filters, looks terrible unless you impeccably maintain it, and tends to compact. I say this from experience, I removed white play sand from a tank of mine a couple months ago, I just couldn't stand it anymore.


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## rich815 (Jun 27, 2007)

White sand is like a white car. When clean it looks great. A few days later.....not so much. I had a white sand bottom tank for a spell. Looked so vibrant and beautiful. But then a few days later the whiteness shows the fish poop and leave litter and detritus so obviously that I was vacuuming every night just to keep it looking good. I gave up in the end.


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## WhiteDevil (May 7, 2009)

gooey said:


> pardon my ignorance.. wont sand from the sea mess up with the hardness and/or the ph of the water?


Its called marine sand from the company Caribsea. its jsut a white sand that youd see on a beach somewhere.

that sand is inert, tested it myself on 7.0 Ph water, didnt raise or lower at all. it was the 24 hour PH test.

but yes sea sand will due to it being mostly crushed coral and shells.

http://caribsea.com/pages/products/super_nat.html

marine sand, the black one is more coarse then the white marine sand, its very,very fine

sand is easier to clean then gravel to be honest, just swirl the vacuum end about an inch about the sand surface and itll kick up all the crap. Turn the sand and it becomes white again, or get some Malaysian Trumpet Snails to clean it and turn it for you.


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