Safe Sand

[Salt4Us]

http://store.yahoo.com/safesand/ornatplaysan.html

I found this online and was wondering if anyone has ever used it, being that we live in California, it's hard for us to get Southdown sand. It does say it's safe to use in aquariums but I was just wondering if anyone had any input on the product.

 

[jackdp]

By looking at the MSDS for it you can tell that it is not calcium carbonate based and wouldn't offer the limited buffering capacity found with Southdown aragonite sand. Safe Sand looks to be mostly silica based and could feed diatom blooms. It doesn't go into detail as to the size of grains, Southdown is very fine (sugar sized and smaller). The main down side to silica sand is the sharp edges of the silcates may injure any sand bed detrivores ie. worms, snails etc. Some people use silica sand with no problems I think its mostly a personal preference.

 

[Salt4Us]

Ok thanks, wish we could get Southdown out here. Guess we will have to stick with the argonite stuff again. :/

 

[Guest]

As noted on http://www.safesand.com/information.htm

Material Data Safety Sheet for Safe Sand


IDENTIFICATION AND USE
SECTION I Chemical Family: Inorganic Feldspathic Mineral
Composed of: Na20.Al203.6Si02·K20.Al203.6Si02· (Na,K)20.Al2032Si02
Uses: In the manufacture of container and sheet
glass, fibre glass insulation wool, ceramic
products, paint, plastic, rubber and scouring
powder. As filtration media in foundries and
for sandblasting.

SECTION II HAZARDOUS INGREDIENTS

Ingredients: None known.
No free Silica or Quartz
Approximate Concentration (%): Si02 = 0%
LD50: None known
LC50: None known

While Safe Sand claims to have "No Free Silica or Quartz", it does contain Feldspar i.e, Inorganic Feldspathic Mineral. This is not good for an aquarium IMO....

 

[BBReef]

chack this site out

http://www.idahosaltwateremporium.com/Rock.html

just call or email them with info and theyll give you a shipping price.

 

[Guest]

To ship to me it was $47 per bag for shipping and then the $11.95 per bag for the sand so a total of $58.95 per bag, I think I will buy CaribSea....LOL