Brickies Sand / White Washed Sand From Bunnings
#1
Posted 28 January 2009 - 09:04 AM
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
#2
Posted 28 January 2009 - 02:46 PM
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
#3
Posted 28 January 2009 - 04:20 PM
Common complaints about it is it gets too compacted, difficult to gravel clean, stirs up quite easily and algae build-up.
Daz
#4
Posted 28 January 2009 - 05:56 PM
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!
#5
Posted 28 January 2009 - 10:42 PM
Totally agree, 20 kg bags go for $5.30 and it really is easy to clean. I use it in my geo tanks
#6
Posted 29 January 2009 - 01:03 PM
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.
#7
Posted 30 January 2009 - 08:18 AM
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
#8
Posted 30 January 2009 - 10:39 AM
#9
Posted 30 January 2009 - 02:11 PM
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.
#10
Posted 30 January 2009 - 10:14 PM
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.
#11
Posted 10 February 2009 - 12:16 PM
#12
Posted 18 April 2009 - 05:03 PM
HTH
tom
#13
Posted 18 April 2009 - 08:22 PM
Andrea
#14
Posted 22 April 2009 - 09:51 AM
1 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users