Quickcrete play sand???

lionpicasso

lionpicasso

Member
What does your tank look like with quickcrete
play sand in it, I'm thinking about getting
enough to make 4" for my 75gal and seeding it with live sand and buying some caribsea sand to
mix in with it. :cool:
 
kris

kris

Member
I was just wondering what gave you the idea in the first place?? Can't say anything like that would have ever crossed my mind.
Me Too!!!
 
scott270

scott270

Active Member
oh i see I know you said you've been gone from here a while, mixing playsand with ls has been a big thing here run a search and you'll see
 
squidworth

squidworth

Member
Not sure what it will look like. But I am setting up a 75 also and have 200 lbs of quickrete sand waiting to put in. I dont know how much I am gonna use in it. But for 13 bucks for 4 bags I just bought plenty. I hope it works well!
 
kris

kris

Member
Ya hear of something new everyday!! I love this board. (I'm not saying I would use play sand, but it's always nice to have options)
 
chadillac

chadillac

Member
the quickcrete method might not work. It doesnt have enough calcium in it to support your ph. You will wind up buffering your water all the time to maintain a stable ph. Its the same as adding freshwater gravel. Stick to ls or even use aragonite if you are trying to save money. You will wind up spending more money trying to fix a problem that can occur later than you would if you just spent it on the live sand now.
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
the aragonite does helpto buffer, but recently sammy or broomer pointed out a study that showed, in order for it to start breaking down and buffer the tank, the ph had to be so low that you should never see this point(to make a long story short), so the buffering should nto be the number one concern with buying sand, and as for not using it, if you cannot get southdown, there are many that have used it successfully(one did as an experiment over a year ago and had no probs, i will not mention names, because he is a mod on another board), so anyhow IMO quickrete will work as an option, but my FIRST choice is aragonite(sd or carib sea, jsut as long as it is aragonite sand and not arag cc)
HTH
 
mal

mal

Member
There are several of us here on the BB that use non-arragonite sands in our tanks. I have 100# of silica sand in one of my tanks, and added 20# of ls to seed it. No problems. Arragonite sand has nothing to do with the buffering of your water or maintaining Ph.
Fishhub said it right, the Ph is too high in the tank to dissolve the arragonite. Even if it did disolve...the amount of buffering from the sand would be minute and not make a difference in water quality. Good maintenance, and water changes will keep the levels where you want them.
If arragonite did dissolve in our main tank, why do we put it in a Ca reactor and bubble C02 through it to lower the Ph so it will dissolve, thus adding Ca and buffering elements? And why would we add Ca to our tanks via supplaments?
BTW, it looks great in the tank. IMO it is just as white as arragonite, and there are several different grain sizes to choose and mix.
 
fish for life.

fish for life.

Member
"playsand" is found at large rock/landscape storesfor less than $1 for 100lbs, I fill my sons sandbox for $2.89 last summer! Just sand, no critters <img src="graemlins//freak.gif" border="0" alt="[freak]" />
 
cadbury

cadbury

Member
I live in Michigan, I've called every Home Depot and every Franks Nursery in the area and can Not find any of that play sand. I have located it in New York, but they wont do a store transfer? Any suggestions? <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" /> <img src="graemlins//dead.gif" border="0" alt="[dead]" /> <img src="graemlins//confused2.gif" border="0" alt="[confused2]" />
 
ksujason

ksujason

Member
Cadbury, I believe the Playsand they are refering to is the kind packaged by Quickcrete.Does your Home Depot not have any kind of sandbox sand?
 
mal

mal

Member
I couldn'f find the quickrete at HD, I looked at Lowes and found it in 100# bags for less than 5$. Nice white and small grained.
 
scott270

scott270

Active Member
ok lets end this post would it be ok to put the playsand down and then feed it with ls on top,all aspects p, nitrates and all others
 
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