Quartz

[Thale]

Hi! We've got a problem! Where we live, children don't play in sand boxes... so we can't find any play sand for a substrate! but we did find some fine quartz sand. Is this ok to use as a substrate?

Also, we bought some of these antislip rubber things that you put in the bathtub with suction cups, so tehanu doesn't slip (as we didn't get the sand)... We washed them very well, but just in case... is it a bad idea to use these as a "substrate"?

thanks!

 

[Jennewt]

I'm sure that quartz sand would be OK. Some people worry that some kinds of sand are too sharp, but if the pieces are very small I don't think this is a serious concern. I use "silica sand", which is probably the same thing.

Regarding the non-slip rubber things, I would worry about whether or not they are amphibian-safe (both the rubber and the adhesive). They may be perfectly OK, but I wouldn't take the chance.

 

[Abrahm]

I would not use the non-slip thing with your axolotl. A lot of companies are impregnating or coating their plastics with various antimicrobial compounds. I would be worried about some of these leaching into the aquarium and having detrimental effects. I don't think it would be worth it to risk it.

 

[Ed]

Actually a some of the softeners used to keep plastics and rubbers pliable are now known to cause problems with tadpole development which indicates that there is some toxicological interaction. I would skip the rubber..
Quartz sand is fine as quartz is a type of silica and typical play sand contains a lot of small pieces of quartz....


Ed

 

[Thale]

ok, thanks ^^ the problem is we already opened the sticky rubber things so we can't return them to the store... oh well, they'll make a nice gift. They're frog shaped... haha, it's the closest we could find to salamander shape. We'll go for the sand then.

 

[Jennewt]

If you don't need the tank immediately, another option is to use silicon cement to affix the sand to the bottom of the tank. This makes cleaning easier. But it would take an extra 3-4 days (minimum) until you could put animals in the tank.
See:
http://www.caudata.org/people/JM/sand.html