Homedepot sand???

[moejoephd]

i just read a post asking about sand to be used in a tank is that safe???? i wish i would of known i just paid 55 dollars for a 50 pound bag at lfg. darn

 

[Atari]

OUCH!

 

[scuba_steve]

man ya can make a fortune off of sand who would of thought hhehehe

 

[malkore]

Only if you're lucky enough to have your local home depot already carrying the stuff.
The ones here do NOT carry the proper stuff...its all silica sand.

 

[moejoephd]

so there is a sand that i could buy aslong as it doesnt have silica in it right? im look in2 it

 

[srgetz]

yes tropical sand or aragonite (calcium carbonate based) - this will help buffer the ph

 

[JeffProe]

Also, for those looking for the Tropical Playsand at HD, it's usually in the garden section, not with all the other silica based playsands and cement.

This may be a bit off topic, but does anyone know if the "reptile sand" you see at pet stores that say it's calcium carbonate basically this same sand?

 

[malkore]

Jeff,
on another forum yesterday they were debating reptile sand. I believe it was mostly agreed that it was some kind of calcium based sand.
however it seems like it'd be too fine grained for a good marine substrate.

 

[JeffProe]

Actually, I was going the other direction. I was thinking the HD sand my be an alternative for those that have reptiles. My wife bought a small bag of reptile sand for a craft project. I belive it was a 1 lb bag and it was $7-$8. It look pretty close to what I bought at HD for $7 for 50 lbs.

Just trying to look out for those AA members that may also have reptiles .

 

[srgetz]

yea i don't see why it wouldn't be great in a reptile setup

 

[malkore]

ahh, in that case, I'd agree with you Jeff!

 

[ambulocetus]

As far as I know, the H.D. sand is great for reptiles, I work at a pet store, and we routinely buy 100lb of it and bag it up into small 5lb bags and sell it for $2 right next to the regular $7/8 Calci-Sand sold for reptiles. Haven't ever had any complaints about it in many years so far!

 

[kidafius]

Ok. I used 200lbs of HD Silica playsand as my dsb (4.5 inches). Sand (silica dioxide) is what the glass is made of. All you have to do is rinse it really really well, which is a huge pain in the $@%. Mine has been going for almost 2 years, and I've not had any diatoms blooms, outside the small initial bloom when I got new PCs. I cured the tank with raw large shrimpt and about 150lbs of uncured live rock. It works fine. Only unwanted algae growth that I've had is the Cyano that I've recently aqcuired in small amounts, which I attribute fully to my 5 month overdue RO/DI filter change.

In short....I've had good success with the all dreaded SILICA playsand at $1.50/50lbs. Growing softies, tripled the size of open green brain, and grown many toadstool and leather frags. I've had carpet anenome and gorgonians for over a year and they're great. The only key I would say is is to really really really rinse the heck out of it....you don't want any of the silica "bran" just the good stuff.


If anyone has had bad experiences I'd like to hear about them. As far as I know, not too many of you are dumb enough like me to try less than proven quality products on our precious systems.

 

[kidafius]

Sand (silica dioxide) is what the glass is made of.

I don't really know where I was going with that.

 

[moejoephd]

hmmmm i dunno if im going to risk it just yet, im probably going to let my tank stabalize and cycle and get up and running really really good, and when im happy with everything......thats when ill try something new and screw it all up