13 replies to this topic

[Warby]

Hey guys,

Is there any reason that the yellow brickies sand or the white washed bags of sand sold at bunnings for $4-10 for 20kg couldn't be used as substrate or as media in a fluidized bed filter?

-Dave

[Sazabi]

Hey guys,

Is there any reason that the yellow brickies sand or the white washed bags of sand sold at bunnings for $4-10 for 20kg couldn't be used as substrate or as media in a fluidized bed filter?

-Dave

Depends on where have they been and what do you have in your tank, if it is purely a planted tank, then I dont see any problems, if you have fish then you will have to ask yourself: Where have they been? Were they exposed to fertilisers and pesticides while they were at Bunnings or where they came from? If so, if you reckon it's safe to put in, how you going to handle them? By putting straight into the tank or by washing them?

If you reckon it is safe then by all means. In the end it is your call, different people will do things differently, I would avoid it but I think some would be gungho enough to use them

[dazzabozza]

Quite a few people have used the white playground sand (do a search to find past threads) and also silica sand (common in pool filters).

Common complaints about it is it gets too compacted, difficult to gravel clean, stirs up quite easily and algae build-up.


Daz

[silly]

used it in all my tanks never had a problem with it.......
best stuff was from soils aint soils as its washed white sand and it required little washing to get the crap out, the bunnings stuff had quite alot of dirt in it.
oh and its cheaper at soils and soils too!

[Ronny]

best stuff was from soils aint soils as its washed white sand and it required little washing to get the crap out, the bunnings stuff had quite alot of dirt in it.

Totally agree, 20 kg bags go for $5.30 and it really is easy to clean. I use it in my geo tanks

[Warby]

Totally agree, 20 kg bags go for $5.30 and it really is easy to clean. I use it in my geo tanks

Cool cheers for that.. Might pick up a bag next time im near a soils aint soils and give it a go as media in a fluidized bed filter..

I did notice the so called washed white sand at bunnings had alot of crap through it.. But figured for the price, i could live with doing a little bit of cleaning heh.

[werdna]

Thats the stuff I use now too.
The sand sifters love it as well
But you definately cant use brickies sand, if it is sold as brickies sand it can have lime added to it, and fish generally enjoy their scales or skin not being eaten by an alkyli
Andrew

[Warby]

haha fair enough i'll keep away from the brickies sand then

[Shane_H]

My mate uses the white sillica sand you get for pool filters...its like $5 for a 20kg bag. While it does look quite nice, I have noticed (as mentioned above) that algae builds up quite quickly in it, possibly because it doesn't get as oxygenated as a larger particulate gravel does? Not sure. But also, the finer grained the substrate, the easier it is for it to become stirred up.

That being in mind, i've also heard that in some cases fish that come from a more gravelly like subtrate in nature tend to have gill problems in a finer grained subtrate due to not being able to rid themselves of the particles as easy. Not sure how true this is though.

[Krystal]

If using silica sand then be prepared to get some unwanted diatom algae.

Also keep in mind to keep your filter intakes well away from the sand......any entering the motor can cause major damage to your impeller among other things.

[Matt_1]

Yeah I use the white bunnings sand. Just make sure you wash it thoroughly before putting it in your tank

[the pulpican man]

At most LFS you can buy jandakot silica sand, 30-40 KG bag for $18 i love the stuff, looks nice and natural and its not a GLAREY white, my fish love it, they dig it everyday and it's very cheap and replaced easy.

HTH

tom

[anchar]

$5.00 ish for 20 kg white sand at Innovations on hale Rd, Wattle Grove. Ask for the manager

Andrea

[Coxyy]

I have used the bunnings washed sand for all my tanks works great. I even had a mate that worked in a LFS and they just used to wash the bunnings sand and sell it for about $20 kg.