My Home Depot was not very useful when I was looking for sand. Small pebbles and river rocks work quite well but you have o stir them around a bit for cleaning.
I my opinion gravel is the best substrate for newts, though obviously you should select a size which is too big to be accidentaly ingested. I would be VARY wary of using sand as a substrate fr any small animal. I'm sure theres no risk of impaction in large amphibians, like axolotls, but if you consider how tiny a small newts digestive tract must be in comparison and the amount of substrate that gets sucked down the way they eat('gulping') impaction seems very logical to me. I am *convinced* the sand substrate is the only explanation as it was the only change. Within 4 months one of them was dead(not eating) and the other had a major case of bloat.
The animals I introduced were healthy CB individuals I'd had for over a year. I used to use sand in a fire belly setup. I have more exprience with husbandry of small reptiles than amphibians, so I've always been wary of sand.
