[Mikeman]

Can it it be done?

[FishKid]

some say yes, others say no... its better to be cautious though. have you looked for the famed southdown sand? I looked High and Low!! in the end, i gave up looking for it, and guess what i found the week after i had already used the sand! it goes by 2 names south down tropical play sand and yardright tropical play sand. and costs about $4.00! HTH!

mark

[Mikeman]

the thing is, I can't get it in town, and its about 28 bucks for a bag here at reefland, which has about 40lbs, or I can get some silica sand at mernards for a 5 bucks which has 100lbs bags


you do the math

[brown trout]

My tank has been set up for about 7 months and I've seen no problems with the silica sand. That doesn't mean that I don't test the water a few times a week. Even though I've had no problems so far, when the new tank goes up in a few months, I'll probably use the good stuff.

[Elmo18]

Mikeman,

It's perfectly fine to use SILICA sand. I have both in my tanks, the 25 gallon and my 80 gallon.

In my 25 gallon I have silica sand fine grain with hawaiian puka shells, and in my 80 gallon I have Carib Sea mixed in with silica sand, about half and half mix.

The only thing you would be missing if using silica is the buffering effects of Southdown sand, and also the numerous particles sizes. Silica sand in my opinion has almost the same size grains.

Regards,
Ilham

[Mikeman]

I am going to mix it with cc(less than 1/4)

[Ninong]

Anything more than 1% crushed coral would be a big mistake. The particle sizes are too large. Silica sand may, or may not, cause problems in your tank. The problems seem to be caused by the fact that most silica sands contain a certain amount of feldspar and are not 100% pure SiO2. Feldspar will dissolve in your tank.

Ninong

[stang69]

Elmo whats the Name brand on your sand is it white or that drab brown stuff. I also have tried to no avail to get the SD sand as you know (sorry Bout that) I am trying to set us a 60x18x20h and the carib sea stuff is gonna kill me

Jeff

[scubadude]

Originally posted by Mikeman
Can it it be done?

SURE it can be done!

Is it safer than aragonite sand? not in my opinion!

This topic has been beat up many times and you will find ppl that swear that silica sand is ok...and others that say it is not....I had nothing but silica sand in my 90 gal tank when I started...I had a constant battle w/cyano (im not saying it was/wasnt the sand) I decided to redo the whole sand bed and I went with the Southdown sand instead....If you are gonna get serious w/ reefing and you dont want to have to redo anything I would definately go with the aragonite based sand NOT silica....if you are just playin around and trying to get by as cheap as possible then go for it! Just my 2 pennys though I know that there are ppl that will debate my thoughts

[SPasse]

Mikeman,

Here is one of my previous postings on this subject. It still pretty much sums up my current feeling on this issue.

My first plenum system was in the early nineties was based on Bob Gomen’s “Natural Nitrate Reduction Method” and featured silica sand. (TexBlast).

This system worked well and did not exhibit silica related problems etc.

But today I use only aragonite-based sands because:

1 The particle sizes of the southdown and the 60/30/10 ESV/CaribSea aragonite mixes are more conducive to the complete fauna communities that we are trying to host.

2 A aragonite based live sand bed of sufficient depth and correct particle size, achieves areas in it’s lower depths, where pH levels drop to levels sufficient for at least some dissolution of the aragonite. I.e. CA and other trace element are added to the system.

So yes, you can use silica sand. But IMHO aragonite sands are a “better” choice.

Also, at the risk of arguing with Rob Toonen, whom I greatly respect, the solubility of silica sand in salt water is a hotly debated issue.

Here is a link to a thread that discusses this issue at length.

http://www.reefs.org/ubb/Archives/Ar...-1-007574.html

Regards,

Scott Passe

[icemark]

No crushed coral in the mix, there is no real advantage to it. and there are or will be problems using it

However,

I have used silica sands in grow out/ experimental tanks without problems for a couple years now, however in the one tank that I still have CC in, I will be replacing with aragonite sand, purely for aesthetic reasons. The minor amount of buffering that aragonite sands might have, certainly is not even a consideration in my mind.

There have been as many people claiming silica sands are bad as reports that cell phones cause cancer, along the same vein some well respected members of the reef society say that silica in some cases is even better for fauna than aragonite sand. As both in cellular phones and sand, there have been no true conclusive results either way.

The reason that I am using aragonite sand in my main show tank, rather than the much cheaper play sand again being aesthetics and I think it was Spasse or Ninong (pardon me that I don't remember who) that said [on a similar thread] basically so what is you pay $1.50 a lbs for it. It is still one of the cheapest things you'll buy for your tank.

[Mikeman]

I'm a little confused on the buffering effect of sd sand,

also with a good clean up crew and lots of microalge From The Start wouldn't nusiance alge have problems getting a foot hold in a tank full of silica?



thanks all

[SPasse]

Mikeman,

In the deeper layers of a well fed DSB, the pH drops to the point where some of the aragonite dissolves and adds CA and Alkalinity too the system – kind on like an in-tank CA reactor.

Different people seem to have different experiences with just how much sand dissolves in their systems.

It is almost never enough that you can forgo CA and alkalinity additions, but for some it can supply a fair percentage of there total CA uptake budget.

For others very little if any seems to dissolve at all.

Finally, silica by itself does not necessarily cause nuisance algae/diatom problems. You also need additional nutrients (Phosphate, nitrate, etc.)

Diatoms are a necessary part of a reef, and some people like Randy H. Farley actually add silica to their systems.

Regards,

Scott Passe