I have just recently started a saltwater aquarium and have just placed the live rock in it. I'm waiting for the ammonia level to taper off then i'll test for the other stuff but i was wondering about the sand to use. I have some live sand but i was wondering if clean play sand was an adequate alternative. This may sound crazy to some but i was just wondering. I havent' done it because i don't want to delay my addition of fish more than i have to so any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Sand to use
- Thread starter minnierdz
- Start date
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nyghtone
Aquarium Advice Freak
There are a lot of playsands that work great for this, as long as they are aragonite based and not silica based. From the posts I've seen South Down's tropical playsand seems to be good. I'm sure there are others, but NON of them are avalible in my area, so I had to pay the big bucks for the Aribsea 
HTH, Joshua
P.S. Search this forum on play sand, there has been tons of threads about it in the last few months.
HTH, Joshua
P.S. Search this forum on play sand, there has been tons of threads about it in the last few months.
Anemoneman
Aquarium Advice Addict
Aragonite (calcium carbonate) is the best sand to use for a reef tank but there is nothing inherently wrong with silica sand. It is one if the most inert substances in the world. It WILL NOT dissolve in your tank water, at least for a few centuries anyway. I started my sand bed with silica sand and it still is about 20% silica (at the bottom).
nyghtone
Aquarium Advice Freak
Agreed, I only meant to infer that silica wasn't 'great', haha.
Joshua...
Joshua...
RocketSeason
Aquarium Advice Addict
Silca will work, but I wanted the good stuff. Unfortunatly that meant me spending 50 bucks because argonite playsand was not available in my area. Oh well.... :|
BillyZ
Aquarium Advice Addict
if your going to use playsand you MUST get "sterilized playsand". Don't just go off and grab a bag of sand. If it hasn't been cleaned and sterilized there could be any number of polutants in the sand that will harm your tank.
ok..well i did grab a bag of play sand but it says its been sterilized and cleaned. I also had another question that you may be able to answer, at what point during the cycling process should i add the sand..because i have some live sand as well. Should i put it in together or add the live sand first or the playsand first..so many questions!
BillyZ
Aquarium Advice Addict
the sand should have already been in the tank. The sand needs to cycle as well. The cycle is the process which creates the beneficial bacteria in your tank to naturally filter the waste from the water. Add in your play sand now, then your live sand on top of that. What are you using as a source of ammonia for your cycle?
i'm using live rock, i guess since i had bought the play sand and wasn't completely sure if i should use it i didnt' want to dump it in there and kill my live rock. should i go ahead or wait for the cycling to keep going..i just started this sunday with the live rock
BillyZ
Aquarium Advice Addict
well... before we go any further, why don't you give us a quick run down of all the equip and everything else you have, what you've done so far, and what you want to "Accomplish" with the tank and we'll help you out as best we can!
alrighty then well i have a 55 gal aquarium with a powerhead..i don't know how you judge them speed? and a canister filter a heater, although i don't think we're going to actually need that one..yet..a 48 inch double bulb lighting fixture, glass tops and well the salty water (redsea salt) we have the testing kit, i've tested the salinity, its ok for now, and the ph is fine also. THe ammonia is high and the nitrite ? has turned up as zero as of last night. We also have a 50 lb bag of sterilized and cleaned play sand and 20 lb bag of live sand that have not been introduced. we also have a green little bubble thingy (aireator) i dont' know how to spell it...what i'm hoping to accomplish is to get my tank cycles and then add some fish and maintain that with live rock with some invertabrates to help keep the tank clean. nothing too fancy.
RocketSeason
Aquarium Advice Addict
what do you have in there now. do you have your live sand in with your live rocks?
BillyZ
Aquarium Advice Addict
you measure a powerhead by the gallons per hour (GPH) that it pumps. You will want more than one.
probably won't need the canister filter either (with a DSB and LR that will be all the filtration you need)
without a sump, you'll want to get rid of the glass tops. See if you can find some "eggcrate" to use as a cover instead. the glass tops prevent adequate airflow over the tank, which hampers the oxygen exchange.
you won't want the airstone either. I say, if you can, turn in the canister filter, glass tops and airpump/sirstone and buy a couple more powerheads and some eggcrate.
you'll want enough powerheads to give you about 500+ GPH to give you adequate water movement around the rock and surface of the tank. 2-3 PHs would work well. One directed across the surface of the tank will help maintain your oxygen, and a couple more to clash in the middle to give you some decent turbulance. You want this to keep detritus and other waste from setteling and collecting in "Dead zones"
check out our articles section you'll find a lot there on the nintrogen cycle, cycling with raw shrimp etc.
Add in your play sand, put your "live sand" on top of that and let it settle while you go get a couple more powerheads (your tank will be cloudy for a while, get a plastic turkey baster for blowing the sand and silt off of your LR). Go to the grocery store and pick up a small, fresh, uncooked and never frozen shrimp. Drop it in the tank and follow the directions in the article above. In a couple weeks you'll be ready to start quarentining your first couple of fish!
probably won't need the canister filter either (with a DSB and LR that will be all the filtration you need)
without a sump, you'll want to get rid of the glass tops. See if you can find some "eggcrate" to use as a cover instead. the glass tops prevent adequate airflow over the tank, which hampers the oxygen exchange.
you won't want the airstone either. I say, if you can, turn in the canister filter, glass tops and airpump/sirstone and buy a couple more powerheads and some eggcrate.
you'll want enough powerheads to give you about 500+ GPH to give you adequate water movement around the rock and surface of the tank. 2-3 PHs would work well. One directed across the surface of the tank will help maintain your oxygen, and a couple more to clash in the middle to give you some decent turbulance. You want this to keep detritus and other waste from setteling and collecting in "Dead zones"
check out our articles section you'll find a lot there on the nintrogen cycle, cycling with raw shrimp etc.
Add in your play sand, put your "live sand" on top of that and let it settle while you go get a couple more powerheads (your tank will be cloudy for a while, get a plastic turkey baster for blowing the sand and silt off of your LR). Go to the grocery store and pick up a small, fresh, uncooked and never frozen shrimp. Drop it in the tank and follow the directions in the article above. In a couple weeks you'll be ready to start quarentining your first couple of fish!
BillyZ
Aquarium Advice Addict
some examples of eggcrate:
http://www.simplyltg.com/acatalog/Online_Catalog_Plastic_Parabolic_Louvers_10.html
it allows the light and air to pass through but keeps fish from jumping out. If you're concerned about splash reaching the bulbs you can either raise the lights up off of the eggcrate or your can put just a single piece of the glass tops under the lights (but still leaving the rest of the eggcrate unblocked)
http://www.simplyltg.com/acatalog/Online_Catalog_Plastic_Parabolic_Louvers_10.html
it allows the light and air to pass through but keeps fish from jumping out. If you're concerned about splash reaching the bulbs you can either raise the lights up off of the eggcrate or your can put just a single piece of the glass tops under the lights (but still leaving the rest of the eggcrate unblocked)
revhtree
Aquarium Advice Addict
How much LR do you have?
