FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I was having the hardest time finding silica sand until I wandered through the farm section at Fleet Farm and found it labeled as chicken grit. They have three different sizes #1 - #3. It's called Cherry Stone Grit and the size most people use is the #1 size although I'm using the #2 size in the bottom half of my pots( it's like small fish tank gravel) and the #1 on the top half. It's anywhere from $5.00 to $9.00 for a 50 lb. bag depending on where you get it from. Hopefully this info helps.

Chicken grit is often crushed granite, not silica sand. If it's opaque white with perhaps black or dark tiny flecks, then it's probably granite; if it's translucent (allows most of the light to pass through the grains), then it may very well be silica sand.

It's the stuff that I asked about a couple of days ago that's 96 - 97% crystalline silica and 3 - 4% Aluminum oxide so as long as the ingredient label is correct it's silica sand.

I just looked up the chemical composition of granite (worldwide) and it's 72.04% silicon dioxide (silica):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite
So I'm sure that there are types of granite that are almost entirely silica.

markus13 wrote:It's the stuff that I asked about a couple of days ago that's 96 - 97% crystalline silica and 3 - 4% Aluminum oxide so as long as the ingredient label is correct it's silica sand.

You're right. If that is being sold as chicken grit, then that chicken grit is silica sand. In fact, since I live in dairy and ranching country, I think I'll check our local livestock feed stores and see if any of their chicken grit is silica sand: it might be cheaper than my current source. Thank you for mentioning this potential alternate source for silica sand, since many of us have to be creative in order to find a source.

Yep, I was having the hardest time finding the stuff in Wisconsin (not many swimming pools around for filter sand) and online the shipping costs are completely outrageous. All I know is that I'm set for awhile - 3 cu ft of peat moss, two cu ft of perlite, 50 lbs of medium grit silica sand, and 50 lbs of fine grit silica sand and it cost me a total of $48.00 for everything. Oh yeah Steve, when looking for it as poultry grit, I think you will want to ask for chic grit. I'm not a poultry farmer, but from my online research that should be what to look for unless you can find "#1 Cherry Stone" grit. That's the stuff that I'm starting to use in the top half of my mix and looks very close to the same size grains as the mix the ceph I got from you was in.

I've been having a hard time finding Silica sand too. I do have a Farm and Fleet in my area. I checked their website for the grit you are talking about and it is labeled as "100% crushed Quartzite rock" for #2. It doesn't show the ingredient label on their website so maybe the crushed Quartzite rock turns into 97% Silica sand?

Here is a link to the grit. I assume it is the same one
http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/41 ... one%2bgrit

The bag pictured doesn't look like the one I have, but the name is the same. Alot of times they don't put up the actual product picture or the manufacturer may have changed packaging so it's probably the same stuff. I use the #2 grit in the bottom half of my pots for added weight and the #1 grit for the top half. I do have a few plants that I only used the #2 grit in as a trial, but I like the look of the finer sand on top better. The ingredients list on my bags state that they are both approx. 97% crystalline silica and 3% aluminum oxide.