Who's Home Depot carries...

[dralarms]

That's good cause this may work out ok. I've decided to mix 40 lbs of sand and 40 lbs of "reef sand" and that will give me enough for my 46 gal bow front and my 29 gal also. I'll be ordering my lr next week. . Now I'll be able to do both tanks at once.

 

[lokie]

The home depot here only has quikrete play sand,
will this work?

 

[cmor1701d]

Yep. It's silica based but from Dr. Ron Shimek's article on Deep Sand Beds...

"The organisms do not care about the sediment mineral composition, only the particle sizes and shapes. Most aquarists use the commonly available aragonitic sands to "provide a calcium reservoir." Additionally their bright white color is often aesthetically pleasing. However, if the system's pH and calcium concentrations get low enough to dissolve significant amounts of the sediment there are some very severe problems and all the sand in the world won't help. Very successful tanks may be set up utilizing black lava sand, or fine siliceous sand, as long as the grains are of the appropriate size."

 

[pdwire]

I am in the same quikrete boat and after reading this entire thread it does not look like I have a chance of getting any Southdown/Old Castle/Tropical blah blah blah.

How can you tell if the grains are of the appropriate size?

 

[OhTheHumanity]

The smallest I have seen, it says 30 gr or something like that on the bag.

 

[reefrunner69]

They should be comparable size to sugar grains.