# Sand Substrate in California



## the4ork (Dec 30, 2014)

I've done a fair amount of searching and prodding on this side and I figured it was about time that I got on here and do a little bit of posting....

I've read that a lot of people have had good/bad luck with sand and a lot of people say that sand becomes compact and destroys roots while others say that it won't do this. There's also the debate of play sand over sand meant for pool filters, etc. One thing that I noticed between ALL of these threads is that the location of people has changed constantly. So, while I couldn't exactly find the answers I was looking for, I ended up going out on my own and figuring things out, which I did. 

This is useful information for anyone who's in California and/or anyone who has access to "Kiln Dried Monterey" Sand for a Freshwater Aquarium and this is my personal experience over the past 3 years specifically with this sand.

The sand:
I've used sand in my 56g column tank and am still using sand in my 55g long tank. It's not play sand, and it's not filter sand. Anyone can run over to home depot and look for "Kiln Dried Monterey Sand". It's $3.49/50lbs bag and you only need one bag really. 
In my 48x13x19 tank one bag should yield roughly a 2" depth of substrate. The most important part of using this sand is to rinse the crap out of it, although 2-3 rinses should suffice in all honesty. The water will clear up after a few hours of running the filter of your choice.

The plants:
I have a ton of them. I have too many actually. I've forgotten 1/2 the names of my plants. They look pretty though... and they absolutely LOVE the sand. People say that the sand will compact and destroy the roots and whatnot. This is very much untrue. Roots are extremely powerful and invasive and in this sand I have had no issues with roots growing over a foot long and over 13mm thick :icon_excl. This of course presents a different problem when wanting to move plants around as it can become quite difficult. I haven't run fertilizers at all in my tank, and my plants grow like wildfire. I had about 25-30 fish in my tank at any given time (until my recent ich infestation, but that's a different thread that i'll post on later) and, again, no issues. I also run 216 watts worth of lighting- quad T5HO 6k bulbs to be exact, and I run these at an average of 8 hours a day. I also don't run CO2. Currently, I have around 20 plants planted directly into the sand and they love it. And, about the gas buildup hearsay... there is actually SOME truth to this as I have turned my sand and had some small gas bubble buildup. This takes about 4-6 months to happen though, and if you have trumpet snails or Coreys to stir up the sand, it's not anything to really worry about in the end. 

Things to worry about:
Algae Bloom. :icon_roll. When I did my 55g long tank, I got hit hard and in full force. 7 day blackout? Didn't work. I tried some medication, and that just killed a fish or two. Once I was at the 1" depth view, I said screw it and bought a UV filter. 5 days later, I was pleasantly rewarded with a crystal clear tank. I've also found that running the UV light over longer periods of time will also destroy algae growing on the tank or on plants, but I don't mind additional lifeforms in my tank, so I just use the UV light to clear up the tank every few months and that's about it. 

So, this was my experience with Sand. I can safely say that I will never ever ever ever ever ever run any other substrate except for sand. My fish love it. My rainbow shark loved it (before he died :icon_cry: ), my snails loved it, my coreys went berserk with it, my fw clams also loved it (until they died also, lol, but I already expected it so I didn't care so much). 

I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has used this type of sand and I hope this is helpful for people looking to switch to sand. My next thing is to take some pictures to show the root formation of my plants... and have someone ID my plants for me again :hihi:

-the4ork


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cemex-50-lb-30-Mesh-Sand-200000278/100321932?N=5yc1vZbogdZ1z0u6r2

This is packaged by Cemex, or Lapis Lustre. 
It is a sieved sand, graded so most of the particles are 30 mesh. Some rinsing is needed, but it comes clean pretty fast. I have used similar material in aquariums, poured it in dry, then just did a small water change, rinsing it in the tank.
It is a silica sand. 

This is exactly the same sand (30 mesh silica sand) that is used in pool filters, so any thread that talks about PFS could also be talking about this sand as far as aquarium use goes. 

Diatoms can grow in a tank when you use a silica substrate. They can also grow in a tank when you do not. There are other sources of the silica they need to grow their coverings.


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## MissileBear (Aug 6, 2013)

I've used PFS for a long time.

One interesting item I've noticed over the years is that BGA seems to readily grow on PFS over other substrates. In my submersed crypt tank I frequently see BGA only on the single pot that has PFS as the main substrate component. The same tank utilizes AS Amazonia, Beech leaf litter, Flourite, Caribsea Floramax, and hydroton for other plants, and none of these pots get BGA at all.

None the less I will also continue to use sand for many reasons already mentioned.


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