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I took Carey's advice and washed pool sand. A lot of work... but it only cost 5 dollars for 50 lbs! Its nice and clean now... ready to go in the tank...
You're using pool sand in a saltwater tank? Personally, I always favored aragonite, as it dissolves over time and helps maintain the pH in the aquarium. Little more expensive, but cheap enough at PetCo in 20# bags, and better for the aquarium in the long run. JMO
i agree, although using the pool filter sand isn't a bad thing as loong as its the right kind that won't leach silicates or anything harmful into your water.
aragonite just seems to help things more and its a natural sand in reefs silica based sand is not
won't do much, keep it the way it is and let it build up its life. there are other ways to get the PH up and live rock is calcium based aragonite rock anyways
Don't think mixing the two would hurt anything, especially since you don't have the tank set up yet. As Gti stated, LR will also help with buffering the pH.
No doubt that is true ~ but I never said it would cause issues with pH, I said that arogonite would help with pH issues. Not everyone is faithful with water changes and when we get a little lazy, which we all do, having that llittle extra buffering agent can make a difference.
Truth of the matter is, I know individuals who have used play sand successfully and even one fellow who took sand from a local lake (that tank is still up and continuing to run successfully by the way). Anything can be done if one wants to work at it hard enough. I simply pointed out that the arogonite is better for the tank in the long run.