Hi, getting my tank started up n cycling before my little ones are bigger. Just wondering if any of you knowledgable people here know where I would find pink good quality aquarium sand? And also what type of filter is best when getting the cycle process started?
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Jade
The best filter to use is the one you ultimately intend to use on the tank in question. The point of cycling after all is to get the good bacteria into your filter but as Chris said it needs to filter the volume of you tank at least twice an hour without creating a heap of current in the tank.
I'd be asking you LFS to get you in some 1mm or smaller Pink sand if you really want pink but I'm sure there are places online that will sell it to you cheaper, even with postage.
I'd avoid anything labeled reptile for he reasons stated above and because typically reptile sand is not designed to be used under water and contains chemicals, both naturally occurring and added, that can mess with your water chemistry.
There are plenty of aquarium safe decorator sands out there in hot pink colors.
Rista have a wide selection of colored sands that I know others have used in their aquariums but you would need to ask what each one is made of. A couple of them have glitter which would obviously make it inappropriate for an aquarium.
Crayola colored play sand has been mentioned on the forums here before now but not sure how suitable it is for the aquarium but given it's safe for kids to play in I imagine it would be ok. It all comes down to what they use to colour it.
I suggest this next one knowing very little about the size of it and it would require some more research before you even consider purchase it for axies!
Roman gravel comes in a
barbie pink BUT I have no idea of the actual size of this one. All I know is it's a very fine gravel but given it's called a gravel (technically this class is 2mm and up) it may still be too big for an axie tank particularly of you have anything smaller than an adult in there. You're looking for a maximum size of 1mm to be absolutely safe. Maybe you can email
Pettex and ask them how big it is before you consider it. It is a very pretty pink though.
I still think your lfs is your best bet though. Mine carries a few different coloured sands in various sizes so they are out there.