Just a quick question but is kids play sand going to be ok to use as a substrate?

Yes, but it needs a lot of washing first and must be regularly stirred as the very small grain size makes it compact very easily with the danger of anaerobic pockets formimg if it's not regularly disturbed.

What Noodle/Fishlady says. Its ideal for Corydoras catfish, Weather Loaches, etc, which need soft, smooth, small-grained substrates.

The sand I got from homebase wasn't too dusty, still took a fair few washes under the bath tap though. If you've got a hose its easy peasy to clean :).

I used B&Q play sand, and I found that at first it was beautiful but, over time you'll see that small grains/particles of grit will begin to sit on the top of the sand.

If I was to go with sand again, then it'd be aquarium sand/silver sand, purely for the quality.

That's B&Q anyhow, not sure what other suppliers are like.

I have Argos play sand in my tropical tank and it's great, but there are lots of shrimp in there to keep things clean. I my wcmm tank it was a nightmare.

JON

Tesco play sand looks pretty good in my trop tank. I have lots of Malasian trumpet snails burrowing their way through it to minimise the chances of gas pockets. A weekly stirr up and clean is all that's required.

So how deep should a layer of sand be if I'm looking at planting live plants as well.