onthefly Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 Ok.....sorry for the long post, but since NO ONE in the Pacific NW carries aragonite or southdown (that people can afford) I'm exploring options...... I came across a post here awhile that referenced an RC post. There, the guys said he couldn't find southdown in his area, but use Quikrete premium sand (silca) and 8 months later had zero adverse effects. Besides someone stating the obvious "he got lucky" statment or it doesn't help buffer the water chemistry, I was wondering what was peoples take on silica sand. Is the CaCO3 substrate really "dissolving" Ca into the water at a high enough rate to act as a buffer? If that was the case, wouldn't yuo notice a significant reduction in you bed level? Furthermore, given that we does with Ca, is the buffering capacity of the substrate really even needed (i.e. is the dosed Ca doing 99% of the work and the substrate doing 1%). Finally I've heard some people say it causes algae bloom and diatom blooms....... I'm still alittle skeptical as to how silica (SiO2) causes this to happen? I realize that SiO2 is used by diatoms to make their exoskeletons, but most sands have some silica in them, your glass tank is made of silica, your LR could have silica, and since people have diatom blooms in new tanks without any silica sand......they have to get it from somewhere? Rob Toonen talked about this specific issue------> for reference: http://www.reefs.org/library/article/r_toonen9.html. I realize that this article/testimonial is 4 years old, but....... I saw at Lowes yesterday Quikrete comercial grade medium sand. The dept manager told me that it was bad for fish tanks cause in had calcium in it (uhhhhhh.......CaCO3! BTW). The MSDS for the stuff also states limestone (CaCO3) and silica (SiO2) as the components. It was $7 for 100lbs!!!!! Perfectly bright white and sugar sized!!!!! I guess when you want to set up a desktop nano with maybe 2-3lbs of sand, it is hard to justify a $50 purchase......I'd rather buy some coral! Link to comment
harbingerofthefish Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 many debates on this along many different forums. I for one have had my home depot "playsand" in my tank for 8 months, no bad ailments. As far as buffering, I use a 2 part additive for alk and cal, although I use the alk half the time. The sand must help me out on this. I had my usual diatom bloom, some hair, the usual. After reading around, I think the biggest worry is catching some sand in your mag-float and scratching the glass. This said I plan on using the same sand for my 20. Link to comment
palaegic Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 Hey Fly ... If you don't get any adequate responses, I can only guess is because there may be very few folks out there who have used silica. I can tell you that I visit a LFS that uses common freshwater aggregates - regular aquarium gravel in his marine tanks. Don't ask. I have no idea why - and this guy is a likeable oldtimer. Has owned his shop for something like 20 years. Despite impressions, I can tell you that he has an anemone tank with a pair of clowns on display that is 6 years old (same anemone) *sniff* *sniff* I think I smell flames ... Anyway, my point is - I don't know if you'll get any good anecdotal responses. My personal opinion - there's not much leeway for buffering in the substrate volume of a 5 gallon tank. Water changes and addititves (calcium supps or kalk) are still going to handle buffering, or calcium levels (if depleted by your friendly scleractinia). I say pick up a bag of the stuff, slop a few pounds around in a 5 gal bucket and let it sit for a few days - then test the water. You could use fresh or salt. Link to comment
palaegic Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 ... well except for Harbinger I mean. My Local Home Depot has both the 'Playsand' harbinger refers to, which I believe is most if not all silica, and Southdown which is referred to as Caribean sand. Link to comment
onthefly Posted April 27, 2003 Author Share Posted April 27, 2003 Well, I wasn't expecting the almighty answer to come from this thread, just alittle discussion about what people use or have used. I also refined my searches today and found quite a few people running silica play sand in their tanks. All that being said, I'm picking up some sand tomarrow, rinse the hell out of it and will put in my 5ga, with a AQ mini, and saltwater (pH 8.0-8.3). I figure under those conditions, testing with a good silica test kit will be the best test! Anyone know of a good silica test kit????? Link to comment
lizbeth Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 I used playsand in my 5.5. A year later it still seems fine. That said I prefer aragonite, in my case Southdown. It's "softer", and has a much better color. The playsand is grayish white, the Southdown is much whiter. If I couldn't get Southdown I would get one of the Carib Sea sands http://www.marinedepot.com/a_cr_ss_caribse...sea.asp?CartId= Link to comment
duckhuntboy Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 I use sandblasting silica the last 5 months in my minibow. I've never had algae or diatom blooms, and my CA levels are adequate without dosing anything. It's almost a white color (like malt-o-meal) and I think it looks good, and I'm using it again on a new tank soon. BTW - It's just like I bought the sand "live sand" now.... There's plenty of animals crawling around on top of and inside the sand bed. Little worm holes everywhere, etc.... I don't think my tank knows the difference. Link to comment
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