Substrate, SAND!

its a brown bag with green writing ill try and get you a pict hang on... lowes i have never seen it at and not all the HD have it either silverdale gigharbor and i think i have seen it at tacoma HD... 2 bad you just posted i could of brought u up a bag i was just up that way last SAT

Lane Mountian thats what i forgot its from right here in the state.... very local lol
the tag on the shelf read silica but i dont believe its on the bag
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I use crystal sands pool filter sand, 50lbs for $5 and its fairly clean. Its got larger grains than most sand so your filter doesn't kick it all over the place and you can almost vac it like gravel. Its a nice off white, some people have found it in tan though.

Man you guys are quick! LOL

Lowes did have a some medium grain sand that they thought would be it,it looked real good and the package said it was cleaned and screened. I just might have to try it.

ok good luck with it.. take pictures and let us know how it goes

the white stuff I saw spilled out of a bag next to the play sand looked pretty fine... maybe hard to siphon clean in the tank. I learned the hard way to really over clean the play sand. Took me a half hour running water through my tank till it cleared up. This was after boiling it.

stierwalt3 wrote:Man you guys are quick! LOL

Lowes did have a some medium grain sand that they thought would be it,it looked real good and the package said it was cleaned and screened. I just might have to try it.

i just purchased that sand for my 55 gallon. needed very little rinsing, just dusty for the most part.

Right on,yeah the sand that was spilling out of the bag was pretty coarse. Not your average play sand...I'm thinking it should work. I'll let you guys know!

Fern wrote:I use crystal sands pool filter sand, 50lbs for $5 and its fairly clean. Its got larger grains than most sand so your filter doesn't kick it all over the place and you can almost vac it like gravel. Its a nice off white, some people have found it in tan though.

You had my hopes up -- I've only been able to find one brand of pool filter sand in western Washington and it's always the same color -- and then I saw your location.

I use Pool filter sand from home depot.$5 for 40LBS.

I know someone found it in cali, look around you may find it. It is the only sand I will ever use in my tanks, its cheap and works very very well!

Fern wrote:I know someone found it in cali, look around you may find it. It is the only sand I will ever use in my tanks, its cheap and works very very well!

Umm, this is 'Washington Fishbox', a Washington state based forum... A 100lb bag of ANYTHING will cost a bunch of money to ship. We don't have much use for pool filter sand up here as there aren't very many pools, like in Cali, Florida or Texas. Thought this might be worth a mention to those out of staters that are chiming in.

I have the white silica sand in one tank, $7 and change for a 100lb bag at the Home Depot in Covington, same as the bag that has already been posted. When I vacuum fish poo, very little gets picked up(a teaspoon maybe) and my filter is a 750 gph pump on a custom sump with an additional sponge filter and power head with a sponge over the intake for a little current. The only issues I am having is a 12" Pleco that insists on digging under my bubble bar kicking up handfulls of sand in the process, the sponge for my powerhead gets clogged after a few days, but it is supplementary.

This sand required very little rinsing before use and is heavy enough to stay on the bottom of the tank and not clouding the water. So far I am very satisfied with this product.

Shawn K

Racersk wrote: Umm, this is 'Washington Fishbox', a Washington state based forum... A 100lb bag of ANYTHING will cost a bunch of money to ship. We don't have much use for pool filter sand up here as there aren't very many pools, like in Cali, Florida or Texas. Thought this might be worth a mention to those out of staters that are chiming in.

Yes we are well aware this is a Washington based forum. I figured it was worth a mention because its a nice sand and there is a chance it could be found there.
Personally I joined up here to exchange knowledge.
Fern

Fern,

I wasn't bashing anyone in particular, just stating that PFS isn't really an option unless we travel out of state to get it. I have received many odd looks when even asking for this product at any of our local shops/venders/gravel yards/and hot tub places.

Please if ANYONE can prove me wrong and get PFS locally, please share the knowledge, and I'll HAPPILY eat crow!

you can get pool filter sand at most pool supply stores, several in the area.
i went to master pools to check out their pfs, wasn't quite what i wanted.

Fern wrote:I know someone found it in cali, look around you may find it. It is the only sand I will ever use in my tanks, its cheap and works very very well!

You got my attention when you said your pfs was an off-white color. I use pfs in almost every one of my tanks, but it's more of a tan color and a little change would be nice. I've been looking for six years and have found only one brand of pool filter sand sold in this area.

Racersk wrote:
Please if ANYONE can prove me wrong and get PFS locally, please share the knowledge, and I'll HAPPILY eat crow!

Racer, I've been using Target brand pfs for years now. You can find it at some of the spa supply stores and McClendon's has it as well (at a better price). You can see some pictures of it in this topic ...
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You actually can find PFS at the local pool supply shops, and there are more than you'd think given the avg. temp's we see here. They carry the tan sand - I looked for quite some time for other colors to no avail.

Betty wrote:

Fern wrote:I know someone found it in cali, look around you may find it. It is the only sand I will ever use in my tanks, its cheap and works very very well!

You got my attention when you said your pfs was an off-white color. I use pfs in almost every one of my tanks, but it's more of a tan color and a little change would be nice. I've been looking for six years and have found only one brand of pool filter sand sold in this area.

Racersk wrote:
Please if ANYONE can prove me wrong and get PFS locally, please share the knowledge, and I'll HAPPILY eat crow!

Racer, I've been using Target brand pfs for years now. You can find it at some of the spa supply stores and McClendon's has it as well (at a better price). You can see some pictures of it in this topic ...
Click --> [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Figures, I didn't check McClendon's, they have everything! On MonsterFishKeepers, I guess there aren't enough McClendon's in the US to have even made a mention that they have it. I have been to a couple of the Aquaquip places and they wanted either too much or didn't know where to get the sand without the filter to go with it.

Thanks Betty! Will be using this info when I set up my next tank!

(Now I gotta find a crow to cook up...lol)

I bet I could find a recipe for ya j/k

G thanks...


BTW is that an albino cory in your sig? (I am on a better screen equipped computer) Mine just laid eggs all over my tank, waiting to see if I have fry, should be in a couple more days I hope...

Yeah...I found the Silica sand at my local HD here in Everett! 100lbs for $7.25 What a deal!

You guys can also check if there's any local mineral companies in your area. They should have some PFS for you. I got mine from a mineral company in Renton, they had different colors and grain sizes as well. I went with a natural color and a .8 grain for the size. Sierra in Renton are selling these bags for $44 for a 100lb bag. I think I got mine for $20. I didn't mind paying that much as I didn't want a fine grain sand. Hope this helps.

I know my boyfriend gets shells off the beach or rocks and he just makes sure to boil them at a hard boil for ATLEAST 15 minutes before putting them into the tank. He hasn't had any problems with parasites or pH levels after this has happened. Actually he was fighting an imabalance and chemicals weren't working he boils some shells crushed them and sprinkled them around in the tank and levels are back to normal!

Im assuming the crushed shells bring up PH for him, right??