# Play sand pro's & con's



## Lesley (Mar 18, 2011)

So, I'm getting ready to setup my 40 Gallon Breeder tank. Right now, I'm thinking no plants & I'm leaning towards Play Sand from Home Depot. I already bought one 20 pound bag & I'm wondering Pro's & Con's and what I need to do to prep this stuff? Also, how easy or hard is it going to be to take care of & keep clean? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Lesley


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## Higher Thinking (Mar 16, 2011)

Pros: Cheap, easily available, and uh, cheap.
Cons: Really dirty so must be rinsed thoroughly, too much depth provides opportunity for anaerobic bacteria, tough to gravel vac without sucking up sand through your hose.


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## Jerrayy (Mar 16, 2011)

Pros: Cheap

Con: Gets dirty very easily, looks bad when not properly gravel vac'd, gets stuck in filter when moving items around


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## Lurch98 (Oct 7, 2011)

If you're going to go sand, may want to go to a pool supply store and get filter sand. It's just as cheap, and should work better for you.


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

Pool Filter Sand is far better than play sand imo. 
Better color, higher density, totally inert, very little dust - hardly requires any rinsing, easy to keep clean, doesn't get sucked up into vac hoses, will not move about/float up into filter intakes & clog impellers, grows plants well with root tab ferts - can't say enough about it.
Try it - it's great.


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## TeamTeal (Mar 31, 2010)

pool filter sand also looks natural


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I’ve used play sand for years because it is cheap. I wash it in a five gallon bucket. I put about three gallons of sand in the bucket and use a hose to stir it, when the water starts running clear I stop. I don’t find it hard to vacuum. One just needs to keep the hose a little distance from the sand. The mulm is much lighter. I have never had problems with sand in a filter. I have never had problems with it becoming anaerobic. It seems like a fine substrate to me. I always keep plants in my tanks. I can’t even imagine why you would not have plants. Should you wish to completely clean it at any time you just remove the fish and half the water from the tank and then rinse the sand with a hose. It comes out perfectly clean once again.


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## Lesley (Mar 18, 2011)

BruceF said:


> I’ve used play sand for years because it is cheap. I wash it in a five gallon bucket. I put about three gallons of sand in the bucket and use a hose to stir it, when the water starts running clear I stop. I don’t find it hard to vacuum. One just needs to keep the hose a little distance from the sand. The mulm is much lighter. I have never had problems with sand in a filter. I have never had problems with it becoming anaerobic. It seems like a fine substrate to me. I always keep plants in my tanks. I can’t even imagine why you would not have plants. Should you wish to completely clean it at any time you just remove the fish and half the water from the tank and then rinse the sand with a hose. It comes out perfectly clean once again.


I'm just getting suggestions about pro's & con's. I'm leaning toward white pool sand if I can find any, the place that carries it is only open two days a week.

About Plants: I am thinking on getting into keep Cichlids & I've read that they like to dig up plants & they like a rocky/driftwood kind of scape with places to hide out, also plants can make the white substrate dirty looking quicker than without plants. I'm still on the fence about plants, I'm more than likely to make it a planted tank since I've got 3 up and running now.

It all depends on price of the sand which I'm sure is very inexpensive & how I think it will look over time. Thanks for any more input & info.


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

U.S. prices for almost everything, including PF sand, are quite a bit less than we pay here in Canada, where a 50 lb. bag of PFS is around $10. So yes, inexpensive.

And also yes, PFS does tend to dirty up over time, but a bit of proper maintenance can keep it looking real good.

The main thing is to stir up all the open spaces very well each time you do a WC (suggest once weekly if your WCs are less frequent than that), to bring cleaner sand to the surface. Then, every 4 to 6 months or so, remove about 10% to 20% of the sand, by siphoning it out, and replace it with new sand.
That does the job extremely well for me - evidence my tank, where the PFS has been in place for over a year and a half, and I have replaced some sand with new on only 2 occasions during that time:
(The tank is low-tech, and plants are fertilized with root tabs every 6 months, and liquid ferts weekly.)

http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/h357/discuspaul/Sept2011


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## Lesley (Mar 18, 2011)

Nice looking tank Paul. That is what I'm striving for, nice crisp looking white sand substrate either with or without plants but I'm leaning more toward having some plants. I have a 30g now that I over planted so I'll need to sell a few off & scale down some. Thanks for sharing.


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