Quikrete play sand

[JayM]

I’ve had a copper treatment (coppersafe) tank up and running for about a week. Everything is going well, but my YWG seems unhappy. I have a bag of Quikrete play sand that according to the SDS is just silica (quartz) with a tiny bit of limestone. Would this be ok to rinse with tap water and add to the tank? Or maybe just put some on a small saucer vs. the entire tank bottom?

Or should I just leave it alone? He appears healthy and eats normally, but spends all day doing nothing whereas when he was in the DT he was pretty active sifting and digging/maintaining burrows with his shrimp buddy.

 

[threebuoys]

I have frequently used rinsed play sand in both display and QT. Generally, in QT, I put the sand in a Tupperware or similar container deep enough to hold a couple inches of sand and L x W enough to give any burrowing fish room to get in. Using a container makes it easier to clean the tank between uses.

 

[JayM]

I have frequently used rinsed play sand in both display and QT. Generally, in QT, I put the sand in a Tupperware or similar container deep enough to hold a couple inches of sand and L x W enough to give any burrowing fish room to get in. Using a container makes it easier to clean the tank between uses.

Do I need to clean between uses? Considering I lost about half my stock due to ich, I plan to keep this tank up and running as a QT for some time for re-stocking my DT.

I know more sand can equate to more detritus accumulation, but also more surface area for beneficial bacteria. It’s only a 10g tank with a 10-20 gallon HOB filter, so I’m guessing the more bio filter, the better.

On a related note, I don’t have a reliable ammonia test, just 2 Seachem badges. Both are reading the same and it appears to be a shade right in between the “SAFE” and “ALERT”. I had to setup and transfer fish on the same day using turbostart, so I’m not sure that doing constant water changes will be ideal until the turbostart gets a good hold on reducing ammonia, but I also don’t want to poison my fish.

I’m not opposed to getting a Hanna checker if the badges aren’t accurate/reliable enough.

 

[Idoc]

For a quarantine tank, I keep a small container of cheaper dry sand (small bag purchased from LFS) that is used for only quarantining sand-requiring fish. I keep a small tuppewear container (5x8) that can hold about 2" of sand in the tank. Then after treatments (copper), I remove the sand and let it dry out...then put it back into its storage container until next time. I like to use "real" beach type sand since this is more course and what the fish are used to vs the real fine play sand.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’ve had a copper treatment (coppersafe) tank up and running for about a week. Everything is going well, but my YWG seems unhappy. I have a bag of Quikrete play sand that according to the SDS is just silica (quartz) with a tiny bit of limestone. Would this be ok to rinse with tap water and add to the tank? Or maybe just put some on a small saucer vs. the entire tank bottom?

Or should I just leave it alone? He appears healthy and eats normally, but spends all day doing nothing whereas when he was in the DT he was pretty active sifting and digging/maintaining burrows with his shrimp buddy.

Not worth any potential quart savings. I would be reluctant to use this for terrarium what says aquarium

 

[lion king]

I have used the play sand just for this purpose, in a qt for sand burying wrasses. It is fine to use for this purpose, the only reason you wouldn't use this in a display is because of the high silica content, it will cause excessive algae growth. This is not a concern in a qt, as likely light will be minimal, and any algae growth could be welcomed to some grazing fish. The lack of micro algae in a qt can also be a detriment to some species. There is no other concerns by using this play sand. It is so inexpensive, if you use copper, you could just dump the used sand. Otherwise you will get copper leaching back into the system.