# Sand Substrate Ideas for a Beacg Look



## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

Scaping my 125g... acrylic I should mention... tank to look like a beach. Any ideas for the type of sand to use? Pool filter, play sand, etc... or maybe something more course or even a mixture?? I guess maybe a finer consistant texture will look best. Just riffin' for ideas.

I will be keeping Oscars... I've read they like sand. Also, any other ideas for fish stock that will play well with Os and will benefit from sand... or my sand will benefit from??


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## CichMomma (Mar 3, 2010)

Hi there,

I have a "beachy" sand look in my tank and it is aragonite substrate, very fine sand. It is on the "whiter" side but I think it looks great.

I can't comment on the fish part of your question as I don't know much about Oscars or tank mates for them. Good luck!


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

CichMomma said:


> Hi there,
> 
> I have a "beachy" sand look in my tank and it is aragonite substrate, very fine sand. It is on the "whiter" side but I think it looks great.
> 
> I can't comment on the fish part of your question as I don't know much about Oscars or tank mates for them. Good luck!


Have any pix?!


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## CichMomma (Mar 3, 2010)

WaWaZat said:


> CichMomma said:
> 
> 
> > Hi there,
> ...


Yea, click on my "Tanks" link :lol:


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## AeonzMike (Dec 9, 2010)

Hi, my second tank has a beachy look .



i used a substrate called meridian , made by seachem. 
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product ... idian.html

Lightning is aqua-glo.


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

I think we'll go with a brown sand for our purposes. So what's the differences and the pro & cons between silica, play & pool filter sand. And how much should we use for a 125 (72" x 18")?


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## 60gallon (Dec 14, 2010)

AeonzMike said:


> Hi, my second tank has a beachy look .
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Your tank looks very nice, I like the simple look. I have a question about your aqua-glo bulb. Is it purple when light up? The reason Im asking is because Im using a aqua-glo and power-glo to light up my tank but I get a very purpleish output.

I have PFS and its a tan color but when the lights are on it has a purple tint to it??? I noticed your sand with the light on is still white. Just curious if I got a bad bulb or what??


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

We want to do tan sand... is pool filter/silica brown or white??


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## AeonzMike (Dec 9, 2010)

60gallon said:


> Is it purple when light up? The reason Im asking is because Im using a aqua-glo and power-glo to light up my tank but I get a very purpleish output.


Thanks! I did some testing with different bulbs i have here, Aqua-glo and Power-Glo give a very natural look.. no purple whatsoever. The only way for me to get a purple tint in the tank is with a marine-glo (actinic).. but even there the sand looks white. So it may be the way PFS reflects only certain wavelenght in the spectrum i dunno.


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## jrf (Nov 10, 2009)

WaWaZat said:


> We want to do tan sand... is pool filter/silica brown or white??


Red Flint Pool Filter Sand is a reddish brown - closest thing to tan I've run across personally. Here's a fairly representative shot of it in my 55:










I ordered it online from http://shop.wolfpools.com/browse.cfm/4,480.html. The shipping is more than the sand - so beware.


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## 60gallon (Dec 14, 2010)

AeonzMike said:


> Thanks! I did some testing with different bulbs i have here, Aqua-glo and Power-Glo give a very natural look.. no purple whatsoever. The only way for me to get a purple tint in the tank is with a marine-glo (actinic).. but even there the sand looks white. So it may be the way PFS reflects only certain wavelenght in the spectrum i dunno.


For some reason even my water has a purpleish / pinkish hue to it. So back to the drawing board. I ordered some 50/50 bulbs, a 10K and atinic bulb. Hopefully i'll find a combo that I like, so we'll see. opcorn:

Thanks for the quick reply, again nice tank! :thumb:


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## 60gallon (Dec 14, 2010)

WaWaZat said:


> We want to do tan sand... is pool filter/silica brown or white??


Im using Leslies pool filter sand and its pretty tan once it gets wet.


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## limpert (Aug 28, 2007)

Pavestone PFS found for 6 bucks post tax at home depot:


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## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

This is the stuff I'm using (#20 grit PFS):


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## Teggy (Nov 5, 2010)

For my tank I used play sand from Ace Hardware. It was perfect because it wasn't just white sand. It looks more natural in my eyes.


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

60gallon said:


> WaWaZat said:
> 
> 
> > We want to do tan sand... is pool filter/silica brown or white??
> ...


Well, after spending an afternoon running around the Chicago area in January looking for PFS, Leslie Pools had the best color for our purposes. The other big supplier's PFS was almost white. Paid almost $9/50lb bag tho! Picked up 3 bags for the 72" x 18". But I guess that's the price you pay for discriminating between color! Not only is it tan but it's not all the same shade so it looks like natural sand. So glad we won't have to spend a day cleaning clay out of play sand!


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