Regular playsand?

[possum]

I was wondering if regular old silica playsand would be ok to use for a DSB. I know i would have an outbreak of diatoms pretty bad. But after they got settled down would there be any other issues with this kind of sand? I was thinking about maybe like a 50/50 mix of yardright and silica sand because the yardright is 15 bucks a bag and i would need alot of bags for my 125.

 

[karlseith]

I don't have an answer, but the same question. I figure as long as it's not the dyed stuff and it gets cycled it should be fine...right? I would be very interested in the results if you decide to go that route.

 

[fishfreek]

I know i would have an outbreak of diatoms pretty bad.

Why?

My guess is that 300lbs-350lbs of yardright sand would come close to a 4" depth. Thats only 6-7 bags or $90-$105. ALbeit that same sand up here is like $5 a bag. Not sure why its 3X more down there.

Silica sand will not cause you Silicate problems. They are different. If Silica was a problem then every glass tank would have diatoms all over the glass surface of the tanks.

The only real negitive to silica sand that I can point out would be that often silica sands grain size is larger than the yardright or southdown sand size and the particles are often sharp on the edges compaird to round.

 

[possum]

ok thanks