sand

[rg]

I am just going to start my 125 and was wanting to know if i could buy any sand from home depot or lowes, if so what brand.

[jroescher]

No.


All the sand available around here at the hardware stores is silica based sands. You don't want those in your tank, you want calcium based sands.

Best is to watch the For Sale forums for someone selling off a tank. Otherwise, look at your local fish store for aragonite sands. There are many different brands and grain sizes, depends on what your preference is. Then get a couple of cups of live sand from someone else's tank to seed your new sand.

[caferacermike]

agreed. Go with aragonite.

[urban79]

Could you do it with a fish only. I know the silica will slowly kill corals But would it do anything to fish..

[JimD]

Could you do it with a fish only. I know the silica will slowly kill corals But would it do anything to fish..

HUH?

[txstateunivreefer]

search aragomax on google get you a good price get it shipped ground and then get a cup of sand from someone else's tank and then in a month you will have live sand the reason why ppl are telling you to do aragonite sand is because it naturally buffers (maintains pH) and it will also add calcium to the system plus you dont know what quickcrete puts in their sand

[5.0Stang]

If you can find southdown sand or i think pool filter sand isnt silica based. Isnt our glass tanks made from silica also?

[Ross]

silica sand wont kill your coral, but it releaes silicates into your water and phosphates as well if im not mistaken, both of which will cause major algae problems among other things.

[JimD]

Good thing glass tanks arent made from silica!

[rg]

I will be going to the lfs to buy sand, thanks for all the info everyone.

[caferacermike]

Ross knocked it down. It is the slow release of silica that gets blamed for algae problems. Is it fact or fiction? There h ave been several studies proving the old theory false. The theory, it seems, comes from a new tank start up in which you will get a diatomaceous algae bloom. The brown scum that appears about 6 days after setting up a tank that disappears abotu a week later. It is said that organism eats the dust from setting up a new system and quickly runs out of food sources of fine silica. The thought is if an entire system is filled with silica sand the algae will never run out of food. Now I've read it both ways that it is either a serious issue or a falsehood, but why use something that is not natural to the environment of our reefs? Silica sand is our granites and quartz land based minerals that have been eroded into sand grains by the crashing effects of water, aragonite is the crushed skeletons of old corals. Basically aragonite is exactly what we supplement to our tanks, calcium, strontium, moly, etc... It helps stabilize PH, CA, ALK etc... as it leeches back into the tank water. I hope that explains it better.

[prof]

Basically aragonite is exactly what we supplement to our tanks, calcium, strontium, moly, etc... It helps stabilize PH, CA, ALK etc... as it leeches back into the tank water. I hope that explains it better.

You can use silica sand with no ill effects. Make sure to rinse it well as you should do with argonite sand as well. The loss of the buffering effects from calcium based sands is the big problem. Silica is also hard on some sand dwelling creatures.

[urban79]

I thought it doesnt let your sps or lps polys open up. Which mean they arent feeding.

[matt]

There are basically no buffering qualities of aragonite sand at normal tank ph. If you had a tank ph of 6.5 you'd get great buffering from aragonite, but then you'd have a whole other set of problems.

There may be other problems with silica sand from HD, though. A primary concern is whether the sand is contaminated with other stuff as it's handled prior to being sold. There are also some unsubstantiated concerns about the particle size/shape being able to sustain sand dwelling fauna as prof said. Personally, I wouldn't take the chance. There was a pro coral propagation guy named John Moffet in San Antonio a few years back; he used silica sand in most of his tanks and at the time he had absolutely the best corals in town. But for him, finding several thousand pounds of aragonite was VERY expensive. For a single tank, you can just bite the bullet and buy a few hundred pounds of aragonite at the fish store, or you might try to see if "Pure caribbean" aragonite is still available from Florida. There was a guy selling this stuff online at a reasonable price; shipping is high but the sand was really nice.

[Ross]

I'm not sure about that, but i would never use it in my tank. I'd rather go BB

[5.0Stang]

I used quickrete's play sand in a previous tank 200lbs to be exact I called them to ask what was in it and they said nothing un-natural so i dumped it in. It did cause a lil outbreak of brown algea but was gone within a month my gobies seemed to love it but they were a tank with a CC bed before that. I just hated the fact it looked more brown than anything. Now i know southdown sand is white as they come i heard that they are partners with aragmax so dont tell them your gonna be putting it in a fish tank or they will transfer you to aragmax. Just what i heard on RC

[5.0Stang]

I'm not sure about that, but i would never use it in my tank. I'd rather go BB
Thats what ima try now but im already not likein the look i wanna find pure white like salt white or a small CC bed again like not even deep enough to cover the trim on my tank i think 1/2 "