Play sand or pool sand? Pros? Cons?

[Gti_Leo]

as i stated before, i have a friend who runs his reef with play sand and has never had an issue, and he does 30% monthly water changes

 

[carey]

Well I will be a good example then to see if this all works. fingers are crossed it all works out.

 

[Gti_Leo]

lol you'll be fine

 

[merelymiche]

as i stated before, i have a friend who runs his reef with play sand and has never had an issue, and he does 30% monthly water changes

Does he havve calcium/ph problems, as in more problems than the average reef keeper?

I would really LOVE to go with play sand or PFS But not at the expense of the reef I would like to start!

 

[Gti_Leo]

he's never told me about any PH problems or calcium problems.

our live rock is calcium based and with the right ammount of rock it should be enough of a buffer

 

[Greenmaster]

he's never told me about any PH problems or calcium problems.

our live rock is calcium based and with the right ammount of rock it should be enough of a buffer

I believe that the rock helps and the more the better, but the rocks and sand help buffer by "dissolving" into the water column. The sand has more contact area with the water (by volume) and so it has a greater capacity for a buffer. I'm not saying rock won't buffer because it does... it's just that the with sand you have a much larger buffer.

 

[Purevil21]

When your investing the kind of money it takes to build a reef, you might as well lean on the side of caution IMO. I have spent so much on everything else, why cut corners on sand. So maybe I have to wait a couple more weeks to get the funds, it is worth it in the long run.

 

[Greenmaster]

When your investing the kind of money it takes to build a reef, you might as well lean on the side of caution IMO. I have spent so much on everything else, why cut corners on sand. So maybe I have to wait a couple more weeks to get the funds, it is worth it in the long run.

+1

 

[carey]

Keep in mind I'm not just doing this to save $$, although that is a great bonus.

Out of the 4 sw tanks I have I only kinda like the sand in one. That one has a pink fiji sand in it and it's still not what i want.

I don't want bright white sand but I also don't want something like crushed coral.

The play sand had almost the texture I want and the pool filter sand had the color.

If someone can share a worst case scenario story that'd be great. So far most people who have used it like it and haven't had any issues. But there's gotta be a horror story or two...

While I am on a tight budget these days I wouldn't risk the money invested already unless I was sure it won't harm anything. I only get paid a set amount every month so it's really hard to save unless I tap savings. (which I just wiped out for my 125g build) :-(

I never knew there were so many opinions on this topic. This thread was just for some quick answers but I guess a lot of people have the same query.

 

[jenatron]

Feature Article: Silica In Reef Aquariums — Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine
The best resource I found based on science, experiment, and experience.
Talks about dosing silica and junk along those lines, but there's a portion about the debate of silica sand in aquaria and it addresses most of the arguments.

 

[carey]

Thank you Jenatron! Off to do some reading and hopefully it clarifies some things for me.

 

[jenatron]

One last thing to consider is grain size. If it's extremely small, it might be a pain in the butt. I've gotten the impression that playsand is much finer than typical aquarium sand. I had a very fine sand by Caribsea and it flew around constantly, I ended up having to change it out.
And of course, if it says "Not for aquarium use," I personally wouldn't buy it.

 

[Purevil21]

Very interesting read, so he concluded that play sand does leech silica, but it may or may not have adverse effects. Really good article.

 

[carey]

That was a really good article. It implies that silica is a needed nutrient in a reef. Interesting.

I think I may go with the pool sand, the play sand will be too fine I think.
I'm also going to rinse the beejesus out of the sand too. he had some silica release when he rinsed and soaked.

The only thing that might be an issue it seems are diatoms. Silicate feeds them, another good thing I learned from the article.

Another angle, maybe mixing regular aragonite with some PFS? Get a mixture of texture maybe?

I'm really trying to get a different look on this setup as far as substrate.

 

[Greenmaster]

Feature Article: Silica In Reef Aquariums — Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine
The best resource I found based on science, experiment, and experience.
Talks about dosing silica and junk along those lines, but there's a portion about the debate of silica sand in aquaria and it addresses most of the arguments.

Thanks that's awesome. But one thing he doesn't touch on is the fact that our glass does dissolve (slowly) into the tank water. That was an awesome article and that "chemistry store" rocks... it ships to Canada... but they ship UPS so I'll have to ask about getting them to use someone else.

 

[Purevil21]

I really enjoyed the article myself.

 

[thincat]

carey, the only problem I see is that the sand might be to fine and two things might happen.
1) you could get a constant sand storm.
2) The sand could clump and not become a filter of sort.

 

[carey]

carey, the only problem I see is that the sand might be to fine and two things might happen.
1) you could get a constant sand storm.
2) The sand could clump and not become a filter of sort.

Yepthat was my concern with the play sand. Even though I like better I'm gonna go with the pool sand. It had much bigger grains but not as big as what I currently use.