cichlid sand?

Anyone know where I can find some cheap sand? Or can I use the sand from the river if I was it really good?? Any input would be loved (: thanks a lot
Have a great day

I use sand from lowes its pure cillica sand and ut was like 5 bucks for 100lb bag. Its all white sand so I added black aquarium sand to it and it looks great.

Lapis Luster is nice, myself and a few others on here use it. I also use play sand and general purpose from home depot. Only drawback is that it is very dirty and needs lots of cleaning. For the price you can't beat it!

The white sand is called "mountain lane silica sand". Its also cheap.

I use 30/60 black blasting sand from a place up in Renton. Its about 100# for $15 and looks good in any tank. If you haven't used sand before, here's a couple helpful tips; 1) wash it a lot before putting it in your tanks! 2) adjust your lighting so that you don't get scum buildup on top of the sand. I had to knock a few tanks back a couple hours because of the insane algae growth. Live plants help combat this problem though.

There's a place in Renton that sells tons of good quality sand for cheap....madness told me about it and I've only been there once. I can't remember the name but something like manufacturing minerals.... Best prices around. And you can get the sand in different sizes

lloyd378 wrote:There's a place in Renton that sells tons of good quality sand for cheap....madness told me about it and I've only been there once. I can't remember the name but something like manufacturing minerals.... Best prices around.  And you can get the sand in different sizes

Yep, search for Sand/Media blasting supply places, that is where you will score. There is one down here in tacoma called Kleen Blast where I get my sand but I'm sure there are tons up north.

Manufacturing Minerals is the place in Renton, awesome place to get sand for a great price.

Only downside to them is they're not open on the weekends lol

thats everyone! ill check them out.

SiRWesDragon wrote:The white sand is called "mountain lane silica sand". Its also cheap.

500 pennies for 100 pounds of gorgeous, WHITE, sand. Super easy to clean. LOVE Mt Lane Sillica Sand.

where do i get that at????

Home depot

Depending on your setup, it could wash out your fish's color. I had it happen with some South American cichlids.

i have only have African cichlidsat them moment. so they should be ok

i would personally mix the lane mt. with a bag or two of coarse crushed coral, and a little bit of a tan petco type sand. it will be cheaper with the majority being silica, but the tan and coral should change up the texture a bit and add a bit of color. the lane mt. really washes out photos making them very hard to capture good detail. just my experience and suggestion GL with your choice.

I went with a .8 grain sand. One of my main concerns was sand being sucked up when cleaning or getting into my filter. With the .8 grain, it's bigger and doesn't get too messy. They have all sorts of sand there. I am using a black sand .8 grain. i think it was $5 for 100lb bag. Might switch back to natural color though.

Good luck!

i ended up going to home depo last night and buying a 100 pound bag of lane mt. sand. washed it out all good and put in my tank. it looks really good with my rocks and drift wood the fish love love love it! woke up this morning and you can tell my big male is way happier and is digging EVERYWHERE making big messes for me lol

I'm glad everything worked out!!!

yes yes thank you everyone for all your help!!

fishyladdy wrote:i woke up this morning and you can tell my big male is way happier and is digging EVERYWHERE making big messes for me lol

I know what you mean. My dominant male is always digging but I have a long stick to push sand back in place.

yeah i do that every morning but its no use. lol he has taken over the left side of the tank now and has pushed all the sand over so he can se his reflection in the bottom of the tank lol and he trying to attract a little lady now and i think its working. so hopefully i will see someone holding soon

I put 100 lbs of the lane mountain sand in my new discus tank, the discus look fine, but my new rams seem to have lost all color...well, they weren't that colorful to begin with so I hope its a matter of adjusting to the new home rather than the way the light is reflected upwards in the tank. im considering pulling the fluorite out of my 75 and putting white sand in there too...along with ripping out most of the plants, need to find some decent wood that wont break the bank for both tanks, and im going from low to medium bushy plants to tall and open stuff

i go down to the river and get wood and soak it in warm water to kill anything bad for the fish. my fish love it. its a super cheap way and you find awesome wood in the water

that's a pretty great idea...I was looking at APFP yesterday, but @$7/lb, and the fact that my tank sizes dictate large pieces, I better be lovin it cuz big pieces definitely are not cheap(looked like prices could quickly spiral upwards to $50 or more for a single piece, and with multiple tanks id need several)...but I didn't see anything I was thrilled about

yeah i love the ones i have for my tank i go down there alot i even used some of the rocks and some of the fish in my pond lol

ill have to look around for a river, my nearest body of water is Puget sound, and word from there wont do for a discus tank...

definitely not lol good luck though

I have a feeling Puyallup river is closest to home. the Duwamish runs right behind the plant I work at, but in addition to the tidal effects (I don't know how much salt water finds its way upstream) the fact that its in an industrial area kinda rules it out as a harvesting area for wood

hm.. thats true. though if you soak it a few times it might help? i dont know maybe not

nope...anything from a superfund site has no place in an aquarium, much less a discus tank..

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nick_76 wrote:I put 100 lbs of the lane mountain sand in my new discus tank, the discus look fine, but my new rams seem to have lost all color...well, they weren't that colorful to begin with so I hope its a matter of adjusting to the new home rather than the way the light is reflected upwards in the tank. im considering pulling the fluorite out of my 75 and putting white sand in there too...along with ripping out most of the plants, need to find some decent wood that wont break the bank for both tanks, and im going from low to medium bushy plants to tall and open stuff

I found it best to mix this sand in the 50/50 range with cheaper petco brand black sand, it is not that pricey and it avoids the washing out of fish with the incredible white that is silica sand.

As far as wood, look at kensfish.com. GREAT prices and awesome wood. I tried using wood from puget sound awhile back and after 4 months it still had not sank, so I gave up!

As far as wood goes, I use Malaysian driftwood. These pieces are super heavy and sink right off the bat. I e purchased all of my wood from A Pet house off of eBay. Unfortunately I don't see them anymore. Each piece of wood cost me 40-$50. You can see them in my vids that I've posted.

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so heres my tank at the moment i know i have way to many fish in this tank and my convicts shouldnt be in with my africans but my other tank decided to break at 3 am last night... not sure why but im sure my cat had something to do with it... once i get my other tank up and running today my convicts will be separated so dont yell at me >.<

but yeah heres some pics of the wood i got form the river.