animalcrackers
New member
I stopped by the hardware store the other day to get some sand for my tank and I noticed all they carried was "washed play sand". I figured it would work alright so after lugging it home and outside to rinse with the garden hose I was surprised to find it had almost completely dissolved! 
Then to make matters worse, I decided (stupidly) to try and put some in my tank and of course it made a huge mess of it. I also noticed there were large, sharp pieces of gravel in this "sand", what a joke! After hours of struggling with all this heavy junk up and down the stairs to my third floor apartment, and a bunch of wasted car trips, I finally managed to clean out my new tank (again) so I could start over.
By the way if anyone has a Petco by them they do sell 10lb bags of white sand for about 6 dollars a pop. Way better deal than the 25 dollar bag of sand the other fish store tried to sell me, ha. I bought two and although I only ended up needing one for my tank I decided to keep the other one around because I liked it so much. I should have just gone there in the first place!
I know some people say play sand works well for them but I think you should save yourself the struggle and go to the pet store, it's not worth it in the end. At the very least I would advise against using the "washed play sand" (it comes in a clear and blue 50 lb bag) from home depot since those sharp pieces of gravel could definitely hurt your axolotl.
Then to make matters worse, I decided (stupidly) to try and put some in my tank and of course it made a huge mess of it. I also noticed there were large, sharp pieces of gravel in this "sand", what a joke! After hours of struggling with all this heavy junk up and down the stairs to my third floor apartment, and a bunch of wasted car trips, I finally managed to clean out my new tank (again) so I could start over. By the way if anyone has a Petco by them they do sell 10lb bags of white sand for about 6 dollars a pop. Way better deal than the 25 dollar bag of sand the other fish store tried to sell me, ha. I bought two and although I only ended up needing one for my tank I decided to keep the other one around because I liked it so much. I should have just gone there in the first place!
I know some people say play sand works well for them but I think you should save yourself the struggle and go to the pet store, it's not worth it in the end. At the very least I would advise against using the "washed play sand" (it comes in a clear and blue 50 lb bag) from home depot since those sharp pieces of gravel could definitely hurt your axolotl.
