Sand issues

[Brett A Ross]

Well I have been spending a lot of time researching and trying to finish the room that my aquarium will be placed. A few more questions, finding substrate is proving difficult can anyone recommend a decent place to by it and what type. Play sand is out of the question here in Iowa. my set up will be a 75gal with live rock and large sump so I need quit a lot.

[Reefland]

Your best bet will be at your local aquarium store to eliminate shipping costs. Around 200lbs of fine grade, sugar sized Carib-Sea should suite you fine.

[Brett A Ross]

ok thanks for the help. you guys have helped me avoid several possible bad choices. thanks again.

[jaydm93teg]

why do u say the play sand is out of the questoin..................

i used just normal home depot play sand and it has worked perfect for me.......

i have 2 clownfish a bunch of live rock a midnight angel and 4 blue/green chromis all eat and all is well...................but of course i am kinda new at this stuff to so dont quote me on saying any play sand is ok but i was just saying i didnt have any trouble with it

[Brett A Ross]

I cant find it here in iowa all the play sand around here is not the correct stuff

[Reefland]

A lot of people report no problems with using "any ole" silica based play sand, although they do not get the buffering assistance they would from an aragonite sand. Other people say that using silica based sand will lead to algae problems eventaully. Personally, I would not use any silica based sand in our tanks; I would stick to aragonite....we know without a doubt it's safe.

[Brett A Ross]

I found a site aquacon.com that sells live sand close to the same price that aragonite is around here. Question is would it be worth the small extra expense to buy say 1/2 live and mix it in or a waste of $

[Samper]

You can mix live sand with new sand to "seed the bed". Your best bet is to get live sand from a few different sources to help with the diversity.

[Reefland]

Do a search on this site, or any site for aquacon before you by from them

To your question, you could add 110% livesand to make up your sand bed but it's a waste of money and it lacks diversity. Your better off adding the most of the total sand as dry sand and then getting small amounts of livesand from lots of different places.

[Brett A Ross]

Ok thanks again

[MEC]

If its a Fo tank then any good looking silica sand will work fine. Had my tank set up this way for almost 2 years with absoultly NO problems . 150 lbs of silica shouldn't run you more than 15 bucks.....Mike

[Justler]

Brett,

If you have them around you, you may want to try "Southern States". They carry Yardright here.. The local store to me had a pallet full of sand... $4.50/40 lb bag.

[Brett A Ross]

I went ahead and bit the bullet and bought carib sea $46 a 40lbs bag. still hurt to think about it but thanks. that store is not around here.

[zhenya]

I went ahead and bit the bullet and bought carib sea $46 a 40lbs bag. still hurt to think about it but thanks. that store is not around here.

Brett,

I realize it is too late but you could have gone to "Toys`R`US" and get playsand from them for 8-10 bucks a bag and it is aragonite sand. I bought some for my granddaughters sandbox and was amazed to see that it is actually aragonite sand from Carribean.

[knarf]

Gene,

How do you know for sure that the playsand from toys r us is aragonite sand? I looked over the bag very carefully and couldn't read that anywhere. It is made by the Quikrete company and when I went to their web site to look up the product I didn't see anything on there to indicate that it is in fact aragonite sand. It actually says that it's sillica sand. If my information is incorrect, please let me know because I'm in the process of setting up a FO tank and would love to use this sand if possible because it is so inexpensive.

Cheers,
Frank.

[zhenya]

Gene,

How do you know for sure that the playsand from toys r us is aragonite sand? I looked over the bag very carefully and couldn't read that anywhere. It is made by the Quikrete company and when I went to their web site to look up the product I didn't see anything on there to indicate that it is in fact aragonite sand. It actually says that it's sillica sand. If my information is incorrect, please let me know because I'm in the process of setting up a FO tank and would love to use this sand if possible because it is so inexpensive.

Cheers,
Frank.

Frank,

The playsand I got from our local store were from the Carribean so this is why I said it was aragonite. In fact, it looked exactly the same particle size as the one made by Caribsea. It was in the blue bags if it helps any. I forgot the name of the manufacturer however.

[knarf]

Thanks Gene, I'll look into it.

[Brett A Ross]

I will need some more sand i live in iowa, i will look around here at toys r us. the problem i have found is the play sand around here comes from AZ, to far from the gulf i guess. Although i have yet to have a hurricane come through. All in all i guess i will put up with $50 a bag.

[Ninong]

You guys keep forgetting one important fact:

ALL of the aragonite play sand comes from the same place -- Marcona Ocean Industries. It may be sold under various brand names but it all comes from one company. It is extremely unlikely that you will find aragonite play sand under any brand name very far from the East Coast because of the freight expense to ship it very far inland. Southdown, Yardright and Oldcastle TROPICAL Play Sand from the CARIBBEAN comes through Easton, PA. You can usually find it in garden departments of Home Depot in MA, NY, NJ, CT, RI, DC, DE, VA, PA, sometimes OH, sometimes NC, but usually nowhere else.

Another fact that many people fail to recognize is that Play Sand can be EITHER quartz sand (SiO2) or aragonite sand (CaCO3). It can even have the exact same product number (SKU#) because they use the same product number for "Play Sand" whether it is quartz (silica) sand or calcareous sand (aragonite). This is an old thread but it has a lot of information: Southdown Play Sand... Since then CEMEX sold Southdown to Oldcastle.

The other point that causes a lot of confusion is the fact that PURE quartz sand without any impurities is OK to use in marine aquaria IF YOU WANT TO. I wouldn't, but many people do. It's not white, it's doesn't look as nice as aragonite sand, it doesn't do anything in the way of buffering and it is usually contaminated with a certain amount of feldspar, which is a silica compound that actually does dissolve in saltwater. This explains why some folks have no problems with it whatsoever and others report problems.

And one last point to remember is that the same companies often sell both types of "Play Sand" -- quartz or aragonite -- under the same brand names, only the "good" stuff always says "Tropical Play Sand from the Caribbean." When in doubt, pour a little vinegar on the sand and see if it fizzles. Aragonite sand will react with the vinegar and release CO2 (gas), quartz (silica) sand will not.

[knarf]

Thanks Ninong, it looks like you know what you're talking about.

While looking through one of the manufacturers (who make playsand) websites I came across the data sheet for silica sand which states in the "physical/chemical characteristics" section that silica sand has a slight solubility in water. Who knows how much exactly "slight" is and how much it would break down and what byproduct it would release into salt water over an extended time. Say 5-10 years.