Sand

[AquaticFanatic]

in April of 02 this guy had 100 bags for sale in Springfield IL tramsd1@att.net

Rat's e-mail is non operational I get a delivery error when I try and send. Thanks for the effort I give ya an A++.

Amber

 

[OhTheHumanity]

I can't find anything that says what the appropriate size should be.

 

[reefrunner69]

The link in my earlier post tells what the grain size should be, but your looking for a sugar grain sized sand.

 

[srgetz]

well you may have found silicates work well in practice, i was just reading from the conscientious marine aquarist, p123, "silicates are nearly worthless as marine gravels; they do nothing to buffer PH, do not support microbial life, and get packed down to easily. In addition, silicates feed diatom (brown scum) algae growth"

- just wanted to let you know this idea didn't come from my rear end...

 

[SquishyFish]

The main problem w/ play sand is silicates. Thats the reason you want to stick w/ Old Castle or Southdown. They are argonite based and have very little to no silicates in them. Be sure to precure the sand before you put it in the tank. This will help the silt in the sand settle much faster and you wont get the precipitation on your rocks like you would other wise.

Squishy

 

[OhTheHumanity]

I understand the type of sand I should stick with. Howerver people don't seem to understand that it's next o impossible to come by in California.

 

[goldcoin]

There is a guy on Ebay in Idaho that has it for $12 a bag. The shipping to Colorado was $25 but I got 50lbs of sand for $37. That is about half what the LFS wants for it. I have seen this discussion on other forums and it seems that Home Depot won't ship it to the West And Mid-West just the coasts. I have read that some of these stores have gotten lucky enough to get their store to ship a whole pallet to that peticular store. Good luck in the hunt, Timn

 

[OhTheHumanity]

I have also been told you can use dolomite sand.

Aragonite - calcium carbonate

Dolomite - calcium magnesium carbonate

They are in the same group of minerals together.

 

[reefrunner69]

WetWebMedia.com: FAQs about Marine Substrates 3[/url]]
Dolomite
I am not using live rock so please help. I had seen your web site. Can I put dolomite chips size 3mm instead of coral sand? Please give download.
<<Greetings friend from afar. To illuminate the topic a little further, you can use dolomite as a substrate but it should be stated that it does have its limitations. Compositionally, it is calcite and does not really offer much of any support as a buffering media (until at or below a pH of 7.6 which is too low for most marine species anyway. Coral sand of aragonite composition is a much better buffer. Still, you can use the dolomite by paying slightly better attention to water quality and specifically pH parameters. There are also some minor concerns about contamination from dolomite depending on how close to the fringe of the deposit it is mined from. If you are not using a substrate filter, only use enough to barely cover the glass bottom of the tank 10-15mm. Best regards, Anthony>

 

[OhTheHumanity]

Here is a link that explains the similarities and differences of aragonite and dolomite.

http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/by_name.htm

You can click on the A-Z list a select the mineral type from the alphabetical order.

 

[Guest]

found it..

WHOO HOOO!!! I finally found it...The company name is Old Castle but the Bag says Tropical Play Sand... 6.99 here in wisconsin...they have 100bags...i'm going today to get mine.... they ask for the SKU which is 578-819 when you call. This makes my day...