sand substrates

[Soeman]

i'm looking to setup some new tanks (woohoo for great finds while urban mining!) and was considering a sand substrate for an apisto breeding tank. What kinds of sands are suitable? I asked at my LFS and they said they dont sell sand substrates anymore because clients found it hard to clean (if you caught one of my other threads, you might realize I hold little attention to the advice given at my LFS).
If I boil 'playground' or 'all purpose' sand bought at a hardware store would that be suitable?

[Adam]

You can use pretty much any type of sand.  Just rinse it with water many times (until it's clearish).  Go with one you like the look of.  Smaller grain size can be sucked up pretty easily, but if you pinch the hose while vacuuming, you should be ok.

Adam

[Laura]

I've got the largest grade silica sand/pool filter sand from http://www.merkleysupply.com/
It was dead cheap and works great.

[fischkopp]

If you are setting up an apisto tank make sure you take silica based sand as you dont want the substate to change the water hardness. Also make sure that the sand is fine and has no sharp edges: apisto love to 'dig' around when looking for food or preparing a breeding site.

I found that white deco-sand from the home depot work fine. Another good solution is black tahitian moon sand.

[Montrealguy]

Apistos are Geophagine cichlids - eartheaters. Sand is the best possible substrate for them. I use playground sand, well rinsed but not boiled.