Would six pounds of sand be enough to make a one inch layer of sand in a twenty gallon fish tank?

Question

I need to know how much to buy for my pet frog (im gonna order him from growafrog.com) and the special sand comes in 6 lb. bags. Cause I don't wanna order too much or not order enough.

well, the sand is a little denser than regular fine-grained beach sand. it is just a regular 20 gallon fish tank from PetsMart

the dimensions are 24" x 12". and i want a 1 inch layer.

the sand is wicked expensive too, so i might not use ur suggestion if there is more than 2 bags involved. the sand is special and costs $35.00 each bag

yeah and im getting an Afriacan Underwater Frog (more commonly known as African Clawed Frog) take a look @ their website, http://www.growafrog.com and click order and do online order then scroll down till u see Habitat Sand.

the froggies like freshwater, sry i bdidnt tell u. if there is something you do not understand about the frogs, don't hesitate to e-mail me @ [e-mail]

Answer 1

The African clawed frog does not need special sand for him to be healthy. Pool filter sand will be fine for him. I use pool filter sand in more than half of my tanks and it works quite well. I have no health issues with any of my fish or invertabrates.

Telling you that you need to buy "special" sand for your frog is just a way to boost their profit margin. Sand is sand unless it is calcium based and then it would raise the pH and that would not be good for the frog. Silica sand is what is used in pool filters and that is fine for him.

BTW, you do know that an African clawed frog will grow to the size of a dinner plate and eat anything he can get in his mouth, right? They are carnivorous and not suited for tanks with fish you want to keep alive.

Answer 2

It is best if at all possible to get the frog and sand locally. Shipping and handling on live purchases can be over 40$ and the sand is heavy making it expensive to ship also. If you order both at the same time you will be charged the shipping rate for the frog on the sand also. That could cost as much as 200 bucks. It took 120 lbs of sand to cover the bottom of my 75 to 3 in depth but I couldn’t' be sure how much for a 20. If you have the aquarium already just dump sand from a beach or some other place in it to see how heavy an inch worth is. You could use a bath room scale if you don't have something more accurate.

Answer 3

Why are you using special sand? Play sand (intended for use in sandboxes) is better and cheaper. If you go to a home improvement store, the sand is about $4 a bag. For a 20 gallon tank, you need 25-30 lbs. of sand (usually). To cover a 20 gallon tank, you need more sand than you would gravel because sand doesn't get water pockets. Good luck!

Nosoop4u

Answer 4

a general rule of thumb in the pet trade is about 1.5 lbs of sand for every gallon in the tank . so about 30lbs is needed.
this works pretty well in a standard 12 X 24 X 16 inch tank
you can try with a little less but it may not be enough
4 bags are 24lbs if you really need to order on the low side

Answer 5

Well, if you can find the density of the sand you can find how much volume 6 pounds occupies. Once you know that, take the dimensions of your tank and find the volume of a 1 inch slice. i.e. if your tank is 24in x 36in, the volume of a 1 inch layer would be 24 x 36 x 1 = 864 cubic inches. Usually bags will say their volume somewhere, and if it's in weird units remember that 1 milliliter = 1cubic centimeter, and you can convert from there.

Answer 6

The general rule that I have heard is that your pounds of sand or gravel must match the same as the tank size. Example: 20 gallon aquarium = 20 lbs of gravel / sand.

Answer 7

Sand weighs about 150 pound per cubic foot. 6# = 1/25th of a cubic foot. Which equals 69.12 cubic inches,which would cover 69.12 square inches of area 1 inch deep. So length x width of aquarium(in inches),divided by 69.12 equals the required number of 6# bags. Example: 24" x 12" = 288 square inches,divided by 69.12 = 4.167 bags of sand to cover the bottom 1" deep.

Answer 8

I doubt that will be enough. i have a tank about twice that size and it took almost 50 pounds of rock. now rock is different than sand, but i would bet you would need at least 10 lbs. I would get 2 of the 6 lb bags, then if 6 lbs is enough, you will have xtra for cleaning.

Answer 9

definitely not. it takes about a pound and a half of substrate to produce a one inch layer. i have 50 pounds of substrate in a 55 gallon and it doesnt even make a one inch layer.

what kind of frog is it?
this will help greatly when choosing a substrate.
take a look at
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/NavResults.cfm?N=2006+114035&va=1

Answer 10

what are the dimensions of the fish tank that will be key in answering the question