Substrate for BN tank

Hi,
Has anyone used play sand for the bottom of there tanks??

Regards Terry.

Well it depends what sort of sand it is. Generally play sand has some mixture of carbonate based sand and this is not suitable.

If you are after something similar to it, white and quite fine, use silica sand (pool filter sand) as it is completely inert. takes a lot of washing though.

Ive used play sand in a shrimp nano and it was inert silica sand as far as I can tell. Ive never heard of anyone having issues with it other than anaerobic patches if its not maintained properly. The most popular ones are B&Q, and Argos own brands but I used early learning center stuff. The great thing about play sand over pool filter or blasting sand is that the grains have to be rounded so it feels quite soft, its meant to cause less damage if it gets in a child's eyes.

I used play pit sand in my old 5ft tank which had 20 cory's in & never had a problem with it infact when I sold that tank & kept some of the sand which i'm using in my cory/shrimp tank