Need help with sand substrate please

[Rpoppaw09]

I have a 75 gallon freshwater planted setup with a gravel substrate but I want to switch to sand. I didn't realize there were so many choices for sand. From what I could tell I think I want silica sand. I was having trouble finding any companies online that sold it though. I found a few websites that sold sand but didn't have any information about it's properties or grain size or anything else. Does anyone have any advice about using a sand substrate and where I can purchase some quality products?

[adhd]

I used some play sand from Lowes in my 45 fresh water tank. It was like $4 for a 25 pound bag. I don’t remember the exact brand but I know a lot of other people on line have done this before too, I’m sure it would be pretty easy to find out.

Plus, it looked so much more "natural" than any aquarium sand I’ve seen as it had assorted sizes and colors all in 1 bag. If I ever set up another freshwater tank I will be going this route again.

[Rpoppaw09]

Thanks. I read about the play sand too, but wanted to see what all my options were before going that route. I was worried about how play sand would effect the ph too after reading about how some sands can cause the ph to spike. How much sand did you put in your aquarium?

[adhd]

I had 2 bags, so 50ish pounds in my 45. I don’t remember having and problems with my PH. I kept it at 7.2, and never really had to do anything to maintain the ph and keep it there.

The only down side was my gf and I spent about 4 hours washing/rinsing the sand before I put it in the tank. There was ALOT of dust/debris on the sand. Even after that, the water was incredibly cloudy for about 2 days. Once it got cleared up though I never had a problem.

[Rpoppaw09]

Ok. Well thanks for the info.

[adhd]

no problem, hope it helped