50 pound bag of sand for $4 what a deal!

i noticed a couple of posts here asking about sand, and saw some posts about people having trouble with their water being cloudy for hours afterwards. I also noticed that sand they sell at pet stores is so very pricey! and you usually only can buy a small bag that's only a few pounds, and it's like $8 just for that! personally i used play sand that I found at Home depot. it is sand used to fill childrens sand boxes. It was natural sand, no colors or chemicals added to it, and it came pre-washed, and pre-screened, and I got a 50 pound bag of it for $4! what a great deal! I washed it of course before i put it in my tank because of possible dust or dirt, and i placed it in my tank. it was only cloudy for a few minutes, not even 30 minutes. I used a cloth white rice bag to help wash the sand, i just placed the sand in there and ran it under the flowing water in the bath tub, a little at a time. I had so much sand left over that I can't even use it all just for my ten gallon tank, but when i upgrade, I will have a use for it, and I refuse to through it out, it would be a waste. For money saving, i suggest trying to buy play sand from home improvement centers, or if you live in the united states and are near to a home depot, shop there. a 50 pound bag is only $4 here in Sacramento, and it works great and looks great! it is in the section where they sell cement or cement blocks. They also have a lot of other useful things there like pre-washed rocks for a good price, like the big river rocks, pvc pipes for caves, pond kits, and various other things that anyone here might be interested in. I hope this helps guys!

Usually this sand's pretty fine, and that's what the cloudiness comes from. Just be careful that you don't use a big thick layer, or it could lead to water quality problems later on.

what sort of water quality problems? how many inches of sand should be in a tank and how many are too much? I don't think I have this problem, but I want to make sure. The tank is also only temperary for a month or two until we can get a bigger one, which I am really looking forward to .

I got my sand from a pet store for 2 dollars. It was the small bag but it filled the bottom of my tank (only a 10 gallon). The sand didn't leave it cloudy at all not even for a minute it all just fell to the bottom. I only have about a quarter of an inch layer sand on my tank, but I also have large rocks in some areas.

I generally buy my sand from Wal-Mart for a few dollars. Run it through a lot of water to get rid of the junk, and then when it goes through and I can stir it up without much discoloration, I add it. It takes forever, but works pretty well. The filter generally cleans up anything I miss.

I really like the play sand all of the little different rocks in it make it quite colorful if you look closely. It was really nice to be able to buy so much for so little because i went to the pet store before buying it and all of the sand they were selling were really expensive, some were $8 just for a tiny bitty bag of black sand or other sand, some were cheaper, but not what i was looking for. I just bought my 20 gallon tank, I am so happy! I will set it up a month or so, or maybe a few weeks. We have some rearanging to do of some furniture. I am using the 10 gallon for a starter because it was what we had avaible at the time. I want my axies to stay in the small tank for a while when I get them, and then I will move them into the bigger tank. I have enough sand left over to fill the bottom of the 20 gallon, and some really nice silk plants. I am going to use a black background for the 20 gallon. We just cashed my tax returns, so we have a bit extra cash, so we got the tank and all of the requirements. I am very excited to set it up. I'll take pics of everything as soon as we can get a scanner or a digi cam lol you guys are great.