Making Live Sand out of Old Castle Sand

[awillemd1]

I have been struggling for the past 2 years with hair algae. Due to much advice from this forum I have decided to convert my sump to a refugium. I found a link to a site which described a procedure on how to make live sand from sterile sand, but unfortunately I can't find the link anymore. At any rate I have followed their procedure and I have put a bag of my Old Castle Sand into a large cooler and added 10 gallons of my salt water mix. I added a small amount of my ground up flake fish food along with a few cups of water from my aquarium. The water turned a lot muddier looking than I expected. Furthermore, a dark ring of dirt has formed around the water line. Does anyone know if this is what I should have expected? Is all Old Castle sand Aragonite sand? It was marked play sand, but it didn't say that it was aragonite anywhere on the package. I have read on many posts on this forum that one shouldn't wash the sand because you don't want to remove any of the small particles, but I am going to have to decant this at some point.:?

Any advice on how to proceed would be most appreciated.

awillemd1

 

[tmcpeek]

take a little of the sand out and let it dry. once it is dry pour some vinegar on it. If it bubbles/fizzes it is aragonite. If not it is silica. The water will clear up, shouldn't take too long in a refugium with limited flow.
You can also take a couple of pieces of live rock rubble from your main and stick it in with your sand in the refugium. Or get a cup of sand from your main or an established tank and place it in to seed it. Either way it will become live.

 

[awillemd1]

I actually did this before I purchased the sand. I think the guys at the hardware store thought I was a little crazy because I asked for a small amount of sand to test. It seemed to bubble quite a bit, but I am wondering now if this could have been just air emitting from the small particles. I remember the solution not being very clear and it was hard to see the bubbles. I will check it again and this time rinse the sand first so there isn't any confusion.

Thanks for the reply.

awillem1

 

[BillyZ]

don't add the sand to vinegar, you want the other way around. Take a small handful (DRY!), about a tablespoon is plenty. And put 4 or 5 drops of vinegar onto that small pile. It should "Fizz" and foam a little.

Also, no, not all Old Castle sand is argonite. They make many many different kinds of stone products. here's a link that shows you the difference; http://www.inlandreef.com/Testing/SandPhotos.html

 

[awillemd1]

My Old Castle Play Sand looks just like the silica to me, but I can't seem to upload the image to show you.

Willem

 

[scuba_steve]

wow hopw that was on super zoom over a miroscope hehehe i dont think i could get that kind of pic with my 6 mega pixel lolol