cream coloured sand for catfish tank

gibbylover2 · Post by **gibbylover2** » 16 Feb 2005, 09:11

Hi there, am in the process of setting up a newbiotope black water catfish tank and i would like some cream/white sand as a substrate. can't find any in the aquarium or garden stores, they only have grey river stuff. do you think i could use beach sand if i clean it with boiling water and rinse it a lot? or does it contain a lot of calcium carbonate that can raise the pH? i would like to have acidic ph to benefit my catfish.

Post by **Barbie** » 16 Feb 2005, 18:08

Beach sand is probably going to buffer your pH up, yes. You can test it by adding vinegar to some. If it fizzes, it won't suit your purpose.

Barbie

characinkid · Post by **characinkid** » 16 Feb 2005, 20:54

Alot of people here use Play sand, the type they use for playgrounds..

Post by **Barbie** » 17 Feb 2005, 01:19

And you're sure they carry play sand in New Zealand? You still should check play sand for buffering capacity, as quite a bit of it near florida is mined at exactly the same spot they package aragamax aragonite sand.

Barbie