Coarse Sand Is a Nightmare to Find

Chungus

Sprout
I live in Calgary Alberta and it's such a huge struggle to find #14 silica sand, #20 is easy as pie and even #6 and lower is doable but the range of 12-16 is so difficult!!

Anyone in the area ever able to find any or have any recommendations?
 
I used to say the same about Toronto until a forum member found Can-Pipe which is a local supplier of grades of silica sand. Since then, I've been convinced that everywhere has some supplier. It might take a while but swimming pool suppliers, well production companies, landscapers etc. probably exist locally to furnish your needs. Don't give up hope.
Also once you have the sand, it can be recycled forever so you never have to buy more.
 
Last edited:
This isn't really a Calgary-specific recommendation, but after going down this rabbit hole myself a couple months ago, I eventually bought CaribSea (brand) "Peace River" (blend name) sand/gravel from a local aquarium store. It's quartz, and spec'ed at 1.0 - 2.0 mm in diameter, which puts it somewhere between #10 and #18 grading (so I'm not sure if it should be classed as a sand or as a gravel..). It seems to be available in different places online, but I couldn't find an easy way to get it delivered quickly without paying for shipping, so I went on a physical tour of local aquarium stores here around Vancouver until I found somewhere that had it in stock. And then once I found it, I realized that that store actually offered a few different options from different brands in that same size range, and I was suddenly overwhelmed by the options! I still ended up getting a 20 lb bag of the CaribSea "Peace River" I'd been originally looking for because I thought it was the prettiest, but I spent entirely too much time making that decision.

I'm pretty happy with it so far, but I've only been using it for a couple of months.
 
This isn't really a Calgary-specific recommendation, but after going down this rabbit hole myself a couple months ago, I eventually bought CaribSea (brand) "Peace River" (blend name) sand/gravel from a local aquarium store. It's quartz, and spec'ed at 1.0 - 2.0 mm in diameter, which puts it somewhere between #10 and #18 grading (so I'm not sure if it should be classed as a sand or as a gravel..). It seems to be available in different places online, but I couldn't find an easy way to get it delivered quickly without paying for shipping, so I went on a physical tour of local aquarium stores here around Vancouver until I found somewhere that had it in stock. And then once I found it, I realized that that store actually offered a few different options from different brands in that same size range, and I was suddenly overwhelmed by the options! I still ended up getting a 20 lb bag of the CaribSea "Peace River" I'd been originally looking for because I thought it was the prettiest, but I spent entirely too much time making that decision.

I'm pretty happy with it so far, but I've only been using it for a couple of months.
Funnily enough that was one of the things I was looking at, it's definitely priced up compared to the large bags you can get of pure sand but I might have to just pull the trigger!
 
Oh, yeah, it is definitely pricier than you'd think it would need to be. Have you got, like, a big yard you need to fill? I used half of my bag right away, but I suspect the remaining ~10 lbs will last me a few years yet. $30 well spent, IMO. ...But I also only have a tiny apartment.
 
Same. Though I haven't actually looked because they open during office hours but consolidated compressor supposedly carries SIL industries silica, I can imagine they'd have a few. Arbitrary but they have fine, medium, coarse. Maybe share the knowledge if you do end up going or calling ;)
I'll be going in spring when I have some time off work.

Easier to find is stuff marketed as poultry grit because well, we're surrounded by farmland. A lot of farm supply stores nearby seem to carry poultry grit, but specifically UFA has it. Take a look at the data sheet. I might go with Grit #2 with majority of the grains in 10~16 sieve
Edit: 93% silica so will probably need some rinsing and vinegar flush maybe
Spent many hours looking for sand of all things
 
From the data sheet you shouldn't need vinegar. However there's lots of impurities which could be toxic to plants. I'd look for pure silica sand.
 
I just used pool filter sand from my local pool supply store for my plants with good results so far. I can’t remember what the grit was but it’s fairly fine. I’ll check what it was when I get home.
IMG_8564.jpeg
 
The Target Premium well filter sand is almost all silica. The Standard filter sand has a fairly high level of impurities. The sand you have looks very fine, maybe grit 30 or smaller. That fine is messy, gets on the plants, and eventually sets like cement, damaging the plants. Also I would worry about silica dust, even after washing when it's that fine a grit.
The Target Premium well filter silica sand grit 12-16, washed well, should be ok.
The risk of silicosis should be very low, if you wash it well when you buy it (wash it outside to avoid wrecking your drains). Also always wet it thoroughly before mixing to avoid dust. If there's any dust at all when you're doling it out or mixing, that's not safe.
Also, I find sand is not necessary. I almost never use it for CP's, except maybe for tuberous dews. I really only use sand for Cacti and succulents, especially the slow growing ones.
When I recycle sand (always when it's wet), I sift it and throw out the very fine, dust like residue. I add it to the used soil media and put it in the garden.
 
I did try pool filter sand of 20 grit but like Lloyd is saying I was having issues where it was just forming really rough crusts on the surface of all my plants and just getting everywhere.

I planted some new divisions of my John Rizzi into a trial pot of vermiculite, calcined clay, this new aquarium gravel linked above, Lava rock and a small smidge of peat.

The original plant has a similar mix but is mostly peat and perlite first and foremost with some coarse material interspersed

We'll see how both do
 
I might have to check out some of that sand if this gravel doesn't work out.. the gravel actually has a really nice consistency and isn't too dirty, it passed the vinegar test pretty easily so I have some sitting in a glass right now to see if the PPM ever increases or not.
 
I am not a fan of this aquarium gravel.. I've put some in a cup with distilled water that I cover and washed.

On Friday it measured 1ppm.
It's now Thursday and the water is visibly murky and the TDS is reading 25ppm..
 
After having both the aquarium gravel listed above, plus some silica quartz I finally managed to source locally sit in two seperate, covered glasses filled with distilled water, I've decided I will go with the quartz. Below I've included some photos and ppm results. Both media were quickly (not thoroughly washed) down to 0-2ppm and put in cups.

Carribsea Peace River Aquarium Gravel
Day 1: 5ppm
Day 2: 8ppm
Day 3: 13ppm
Day 4: 18ppm
Day 5: 24ppm
Day 6: 32 ppm
Day 7: 35 ppm
Day 8(rinsed and water changed): 5ppm
Day 9: 8ppm
Day 10: 13ppm

20250201_124244.jpg


Granusil 2095 Quartz Silica Sand
Day 1: 1ppm
Day 2-5: 1ppm
Day 6-7: 2ppm
Day 8(rinsed and water changed): 1ppm
Day 9: 1ppm

20250201_124248.jpg


Clearly the aquarium gravel is leaching something, even after giving it a secondary rinse and changing the water out the ppm continues to rise each day I test it and the water is becoming visibly murky. The quartz sand remains crystal clear and at no increase of ppm.

As for cost, the carribsea set me back 45$ for 20lbs of it. The Granusil cost me about 20$ for 50lbs.

Screenshot_20250202_184717_Amazon Shopping.jpg

Screenshot_20250202_184842_Google.jpg


As such, the Granusil is the clear winner in every category, for people who are looking for sand to use in mixes in the Alberta region, I acquired this bag at "Consolidated Compressor" in SE Calgary, they have a few samples of different materials you can look at the Granusil 2095 is what I went went but the Granusil 2075 and their Sil #9 also looked like it would work

20250202_190608.jpg
 
Last edited:
I agree. Does it specify the grit or mesh number?
Also I need some finer silica sand #20 grit for growing cactus seeds. If anybody would send me a small amount in a bubble envelope, I will pay. PM me.
 
I really appreciate the nice water PPM data. Based on that, it does seem to be leaching something. I may have to do more of my own tests on it now, heh.

For my own part, I use tap water at ~35 ppm for everything, so I didn't see any increase in TDS over the couple of days I left it sitting in water. I also gave it a pretty thorough rinse beforehand and washed all/most of the murky-looking dirt away, and I didn't notice it increasing as I let it sit there.

This time I'm going to try leaving it for longer than two days. =P
 
Back
Top