Type of Sand for Home Brew, suggestions?

[RickJay]

Well this is my first post. I am from the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. Like others I have been reading as much as I can on this forum for about a year or so. I am building a 39 inch oven. I am up to the point where I am laying my first course of half soldiers. I understand I should use silica sand. I bought two bags both silica one says for pools and another says 30mesh. The 30mesh has quite a bit smaller grains see attached pict. Is one better maybe mix them? I have read so much on cracking wondering if the size sand could help/hurt?
Thank you so much
Rick

[JRPizza]

RickJay, welcome to the forum. I moved your thread to the Newbe forum since the ask me anything was supposed to be "Reserved for scheduled live interactive sessions with industry experts."
What part of the Valley are you from? I went to Pacoima Jr High and then on to Poly. I also built a 39" oven - it's a great size. I had some all purpose sand that had some big grains so I switched to #30 "silica" sand (had to go back to my build thread to refresh my memory) based on forum recommendations. If you go to my build and search for "sand" you can see the advice I got.

[Chach]

You can't go wrong with masons sand which you can get at home depot. Pool sand is just that, made for pool sand filters.

Ricky