Leviticus

I'm going to set up a 60 liter tank, I wanted to have gravel with a small about of sand in a flat dish for my kuhli loaches (yeah, I know it sounds crazy).

Anyway, I bought a small bag of decorative purple sand from the hardware store, it says it is suitable for plants. Would this be okay to put in my tank - obviously I don't want to poison my fish.
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Thanks for welcome, I got impatient waiting for an answer and used washed garden sand instead.

Tank set up with few gambusia to cycle it - so far so good!

Would still be interested in the answer if anyone knows - might want to use the coloured stuff in the future.

KittieKat

Welcome to Fishlore!

hmm thats an interesting question.. i dont know that answer but i think what ure doing is a cute idea!!.. hopefully some else can actually help tho... lol

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore!

Honestly, I'm not sure but I would be very hesitant to use it. I'd use pool filter sand.

Butterfly

I wouldn't use any type of colored sand at all especially if meant for outside garden use. As for putting it in a bowl for the Kuhlis it will probably look cool for about a day after the kuhlis find it. They love sand so much they will spread it all over LOL.
Sorry you didn't get an answer as soon as you wanted ( I know I get impatient too ) but most of us work and have to play at fishLore around that
Keep us posted and let us know how the tank works out.
Carol

Leviticus

Thanks for the replies.
What really scared me off using the purple sand was that when I washed it the water had a very slight purple tinge.

Anyway I put my garden sand in a china quiche dish, then surrounded it with gravel and rocks to conceal the bowl. I'm hanging out to put the loaches in and try it out - not sure what I'll do if they do make a big mess of it.

Here is a link to a pic of it - not the best but you can see the general idea.

http://s270.photobucket.com/albums/j...nkwithsand.jpg

My nice piece of driftwood is making the water a bit yellow despite boiling and soaking it first - obviously not nearly enough boiling and soaking!

Butterfly

Thats cool looking! I'm sure the Kuhlis will like it.
It's almost impossible to get all the tannins out of driftwood. The boiling/baking is more to kill any nasties that might be in it. The fish won't mind the colored water and after a couple of water changes it will be gone so no worries
Carol