# Bleching play sand?



## sasquatch-exists (Feb 25, 2009)

Can you bleach play sand?
If so, how? :-? :-? :-?


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

What are you trying to accomplish?


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## sasquatch-exists (Feb 25, 2009)

The only sand I can find is really dark play sand and I want to lighten it up.
I've bleached a little bit already to see what color is turns and it looks a WHOLE lot better!


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

It will be difficult to get all the bleach back out. You will need to mix it around in water with a lot of dechlor in it until the bleach smell is completely gone. I would also recomend getting some of the chlorine test strips from your LFS. That way you will be acle to tell if the sand is safe for fish. I have bleach soaked tanks before with out issue and since the sand won't absorb the bleach it should come clean. but test a lot ot be sure.


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## daowner (May 4, 2009)

if i were you id call this company and ask them were a local distributer is in your area thats what i did when i wanted white sand they are nice and they wil give you a list of pool suply stores in your area that you can call and its only like 7-9 bucks for a 50 lb bag

http://www.u-s-silica.com/contacts.htm


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Both Home depot and Lowes carry a bright white playsand.


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## sasquatch-exists (Feb 25, 2009)

*daowner* Good idea, I thought it would be more expensive than that. but its good to know its not!! 



> Both Home depot and Lowes carry a bright white playsand.


Haha, not in Charlotte N.C. it seems like they have good rocks, and substrates for dirt cheep every where but here. :x... :? oh well.


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## Electrophyste (Aug 5, 2009)

IMO play sand has way too small of particles and gets tossed around by the filters. i use it with my fiddler crabs and even ther little scuttle across the sand causes it to stir up. so i think a fish could really cloud up the water something fierce with such fine particles of sand.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Leslie's Pool Store carries a litght tan Pool Filter Sand... there is one on Independence and another down in Pineville. There is another Pool store in Pineville in a shopping center on Old Lancaster Hwy just East of Hwy 51 that has light tan Pool Filter Sand (I forget the name of the place). This store is decked out with Christmas stuff this time of year but usually has Pool Stuff still stocked in the back.

Having used a lot of sand from both of these stores, it looks lighter in color in the tank than it does in the bag... below is a pic of it in one of my tanks...

Pool Filter Sand is regulated in size, meaning every particle is larger than X and smaller than Y. This prevents large amonuts of fines... Play Sand has an average size of X but no true "minimum " or "maximum" partical size. Therefore we get the wide range including tons of fines that we have to either wash out or put up with in our tanks/filters.


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## sasquatch-exists (Feb 25, 2009)

HAHA! That's great!!! Thank you so much for the information!

*Toby_H*! I love your quotes!!! :lol:


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Just as a side note for future. Bleach does not have to be washed out of the sand unless there is something there besides bleach and chlorine. Bleach is a diluted form of chlorine not chloramine. The reason bleach smells strong is because chlorine is a gas in it's normal state. It comes out of the liquid form as soon as it gets a chance. As such, just air will let it dissipate. I do flush things after I bleach them but there is not enough left to harm fish. Before water treatment with chloramine became common, it was pretty standard to just let the chlorine dissipate rather than use chemicals to counter it in the tank water. A tank full of water would be clear the next morning just by running a bubbler overnight. :thumb:


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## zazz (Apr 5, 2008)

dont assume if sand looks like dark in daylight that it will be dark under bright lights in a room enviroment... i would suggest that sand that looks white in normal daylight might well be blindingly white in a tank ..fish dont get off on that too much.


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## scrubjay (Oct 25, 2009)

Toby_H said:


> Pool Filter Sand is regulated in size, meaning every particle is larger than X and smaller than Y. This prevents large amonuts of fines...


What particle size is "too small," i.e., tending to go into suspension too easily?
I was looking at getting aragonite to help buffer, and it seems you can buy it and other sands of various sizes; e.g., 0.3-1.0 mm, 0.1-0.3 mm, 0.5=1.5 mm, etc.


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## TKC747 (Dec 5, 2008)

sasquatch-exists said:


> The only sand I can find is really dark play sand and I want to lighten it up.
> I've bleached a little bit already to see what color is turns and it looks a WHOLE lot better!


Bleaching inorganic mineral substances will not work. Bleach acts on organic material like cotton, fabrics and such


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

scrubjay said:


> Toby_H said:
> 
> 
> > Pool Filter Sand is regulated in size, meaning every particle is larger than X and smaller than Y. This prevents large amonuts of fines...
> ...


Pool Filter Sand is "20 grit"... 20 Grit means 20 grains in a line equals an inch...

1 inch = 25.4 mm... or 1mm sand is 25 grit sand... which is a bit smaller than Pool Filter Sand...

So 0.5~1.5 mm is 50 ~ 17 grit... which is a pretty large range of partical sizes. I would expect the smaller particals in this blend to be smaller than what I would want in my tanks... The smaller ranges are (in my opinion) to small for aquarium use...


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## scrubjay (Oct 25, 2009)

Thanks, perfect answer.


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## AfricanLove (Jan 2, 2012)

I bought bleached silica sand for my fish tank because I liked the pure white look but will the bleach sand be ok with fish?


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