Sand question?

[Tomchong22]

Just need a quick answer. I am upgrading my sump and am looking to add a larger dsb. About 50lbs of sand. I saw at home depo that they have a very fine grade sand, silica based I presume. Will this work or a dsb images of aragonite? Why or why not?

 

[scottayy]

I don't know the answer to your question, sorry. But I do know super fine sand is a mess to deal with and silicons will fuel a diatom outbreak.

 

[Tomchong22]

the super fine sand i would not mind using because it will be in the sump, and once it is rinsed of all the dust it will work like normal sand. the finer the sand the better for dsb's. also i will expect a diatom outbreak in the sump due to the new sand, but should all go away after a few weeks. i am more interested in if there is any long term affects of using it.

 

[Ibrahim]

I believe the sand you saw was pool filter sand which is a great type of sand to use. I kno alot of people here use it including my self and it has a bit of a weight to it so no worries about it getting sucked up into a pump or clouding up the water easily.

 

[carey]

I used pool filter sand in my 125g tank. took 250lbs of it but it's in there. LOL Just make sure you rinse the heck out of the sand, it will take some time for the water to run clean. It took me hours to rinse my sand but in the end I;m very pleased with it. It doesnt get sucked up easily and its not too big for sandsifters to sift. Not to mention it's way way cheaper than LFS sand.

 

[Dboone]

I use silica sand and have had no problems with it at all it is very fine but I use a sump system on my 110 gal tank and I haven't had any get caught in the the sump

 

[Tomchong22]

Well after a long night I ended up getting the new sump put in. I ended up using a rubber maid tub, and I must say this works amazing for a fuge. It took about 90 lbs of sand ($8 from home depo) to make a 6in sandbed so far everything looks amazing. The sand was super fine and after reading the bag turns out it is silica free win win for me lol

 

[AquaRick]

Very nice! Did you end up using the #30 Sakrete sand? I really liked that more so than the play sand they have there. Glad everything worked out ok!

 

[mr_X]

according to this-
Deep Sand Beds
too fine a sand is no good either.

 

[Tomchong22]

It dose not say. All it said was fine sand. I would say it is around sugar size Sand. I'm hoping I don't see any problems in the long run with this new set up. I did add a phosphate reactor to the system the same day. I guess we will just have to wait and see how everything turns out