Using Pool Filter Sand in my Aquarium! Cheap Aquarium Substrate Pros and Cons! 

Beautiful tank! Love the sand!

Other alternatives are sand used for sandboxes or garnet sand for sandblasting (nice because it's heavy and stuff planted in it definitely stays down), though simple gravel shouldn't normally cost you an arm and a leg - it's just the fancy ones or plant substrates/aquarium soil that's expensive. For plants, a simple 3-4 mm gravel is usually good enough for water circulation and root growth. Personally I prefer a finer look, but issues like detritus pooling, plants not being anchored as well and so on should be considered. Then there's also stuff like using literal dirt under a gravel layer in the Walstad method, etc.

What is the name of this pool filter sand you have in your tank

Dude, I use Quickcrete and Quickcrete play sand from Home Depot for all 12 tanks I have. I haven't had any issue other then you gotta clean it a bit more before you put it in! Screw these " Aquarium" substrates. This is the hobby, make it work for you bro. the poop actually gets sunk into the sand and will feed all of your plants plus most fish love it. Its a win win

Have you silica sand in all my aquariums from salt water to freshwater for over 3 years it’s at Home Depot cheap and is in a 100 lb bag

How is it for live plants?

I used pkay sand. Went black and stunk like 💩