DSB sand

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PeterL

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Does it matter if one uses play sand for their DSB or plaster sand? They are both equally fine - I had a handfull of both in each hand today and they look very close to being identical - is it not that the plaster sand is going to just take a lot more washing to get clean but at the end of the day do the same thing in the DSB??

Or have I got it all wrong?
Please advise
 
Excuse my ignorance, but what does that mean in the bigger scheme of things. I have heard something like that before when I first started but I just don't remember what the difference was
 
The sand particles in Plastersand has sharper edges, and not as smooth as playsand, meaning that it will "hurt" your critters that need to live in the sand, hence them not "populating"
 
I would never have guessed that as fine as it is, that the edges of the sad particle would be that critical. I have a friends who has just built a fairly large DSB and has used plaster sand, my guess would be to advise him to throw it all out and replace with play sand before connecting it up to his system as he intends doing either tomorrow or Tuesday
 
I had plastersand in my dsb, but I added seasand as well as a lot of playsand to it. I never took the plastersand out
 
The system will probably work, but not as effective as it is supposed to be working, or for the right reason a DSB is used for. Anyway, that is my 2cents. I think the Gurus can elaborate more
 
I think the bottom line is if one is goin to the trouble of building a DSB (or anything else for that matter), one might as well do it right or not at all...

I will suggest that he change his sand but I am curious to know how it affects the setup in the bigger scheme of things considering the sand in the ocean is different all over the place but at the same token, it has a permenant flow of fresh water...

I am going to be building a new DSB some time soon too so this information will assist me too. Ther is a point of cost saving and a point where the cost saving is detrimental to the process of what is required. What is also in the back of my mind is I have heard people using more coarse sand yet needing to make it deeper because of that - taking that into consideration and the sharpness of the sand particles of plaster sand against play sand - I am now a little confused.

More experienced hands on DSB sand quality/type is required on this one...
 
Seasand gets washed in the ocean, rolled around, grind etc, hence the seasand being round on the particles- hope this makes sense
 
When shopping for playsand, look at garden centers. A lot cheaper than Reggies. And just as dirty.
 
Hi Guys,

I need some help with my substrate of my new DSB. I bought play sand from two different PlantLand garden centres in pretoria. The first batch was very very fine, when I cleaned it, it takes about 5 minutes to settle in the bucket. The second batch was more white and almost like suger but it feels not as smooth as aragonite. I took a picture of both together with sugar, can you guys please advise which one I should use?

The more brownish one is very fine and it seems to compact very tightly.

Please I need your help! :whistling:

32234c0a9347b70bd.jpg
 
That brown stuff looks like shit, i think the bottom one would be best :p
 
bottom right loooooks the best

agree the top one is shit
 
The shit type, is that the cleanest you can get it. I doubt if the bacteria will worry about the colour. :)

But I will also go for the almost white one.
 
Yes, that is the cleanest I can get them. The fine brown one compacts too tightly so I went for the bottom left one. The bottom right one is sugar... just for comparison.

Thanks for the help guys, hopefully it will work!
 
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