# Where to buy natural looking sand?



## jesse (Aug 11, 2011)

Looking for a light light brown sand.

http://www.google.ca/imgres?um=1&hl...10&start=16&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:16,i:121

Like that ^^^^^^


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

You might be able to find it at a garden centre. If not, most construction or playsands will have a light brown to tan colour, although they are likely to be finer.


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## altum (Apr 24, 2012)

*Light brown sand*

*Since you are in Mississauga, you can get sand at Home Depot on Dundas just west of Winston Churchill or go to Rona on Winston Churchill north of the 403. The sand from Home Depot will need a considerable amount of washing. It is very dirty. The Rona sand is much cleaner and will save you lots of time and water.
If you are using it for a Rift Lake tank, beach sand from Lake Ontario is wonderful ... lots of zebra mussel shells to harden or at least stabilize the water. I've used this beach sand for my plants as well because of the high iron content.
Good luck
Jim*


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

If you want sand I have plenty of it.. I will sell it, forgive the pun, dirt cheap ! I'd probably give it to you.. But I tested it all with acid and it all reacted pretty strongly.. so it likely has a lot of lime in it, which can mess up your water parameters if you are trying to keep your PH down. Don't want you to find that out the hard way. I got it from four different sources but it all tested the same, bubbled up and foamed a lot when I dripped some CLR on it. It's basically horticultural type sand.. various particle sizes, sometimes called sharp sand too.. coarse, in other words. Playsand is much smoother and softer to the touch, with much more uniform grain sizes.


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## PerryW (Feb 20, 2012)

Hi, just wanted to comment but pool sand comes in like 40 or 50 lb bags and is clean, cheap (like $6-$8/bag) and also pool sand is round not jagged so it will not scratch fish and if ingested it will be easier on their insides.


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## PerryW (Feb 20, 2012)

oh also, obviously you can find pool sand at any pool store (google) but also it is a bit heavier so if stired up it sinks right away. only down side is that it is white i have had a tank running with it for 3 years though and it doesnt look dirty at all. GL


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

PerryW said:


> Hi, just wanted to comment but pool sand comes in like 40 or 50 lb bags and is clean, cheap (like $6-$8/bag) and also pool sand is round not jagged so it will not scratch fish and if ingested it will be easier on their insides.


PFS, is in fact sharp. By definition, to meet specs for filtration, it needs to be #20 grit sharp sand.
I think you will find that most sands of the natural type will have a fair bit of iron. Inserting a magnetic screwdriver is a way to test, if you don't have a regular magnet. I recently did this with some brick sand, which is very fine, I am using in a cory tank, and iron filings attached themselves to the screwdriver.
While this may not be readily available here, this sounds like what you are looking for. http://www.redflint.com/filtration.htm Note that the PFS and Aquarium sand have the same specs and appearance, which is far from white. I have some of their gravel, and it is a really nice colour mix.
I too have used Lake Ontario sand and gravel, which I sifted to size using various sieves and such from the dollar store.


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