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View Full Version : How many people use silica sand?


smcdonn
04/19/2006, 12:24 PM
Alright well it's official, I have spent way too much time trying to find southdown, oldcaslte, yardright, durascape silica free sand. I'm fed up. All I can find is the silica sand (quickrete, etc..). How many of you guys use this type of sand. Will it hurt the clean up crew or any sand shifters? What about mixing in a bag of of live sand with the silica sand. I just hate spending over $100 just for sand for a 75 gallon tank. Well let me know what you think. I want to get this thing up and cycling as soon as I can.

Riptide10
04/19/2006, 12:40 PM
I doubt there would be any problems except that the regular live sand will not be of the same color. So if you mix that in it might not look quite right. Depending on how much of each you have - it may not be a big deal.

That said, you will need to rinse the crap out of that silica sand. I used some for a Tanganyikan tank (Cichlids) once and it was a nightmare to rinse it out. And even then it was cloudy for a couple days.

K-Dubbs
04/19/2006, 12:49 PM
I'm not sure what the facts on using silica sand are. When I do start a new tank I will probably not use silica sand mainly for the reason of looks... its just too dark for me.

I used 50lb silica sand (menards sandbox sand) mixed with 30lbs or so crushed coral. (I would reccomend using cc for the buffering). My tank is healthy and running at 2 years old now. No problems.

I do have 2 pistol shrimp that live with an orange spotted goby(a sand sifting type) and they don't seem to have any problem with the silica sand.

You can see some photos of my tank here:
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/K-Dubbs/
(They are a good 6 months old but tank is still runnin great and has grown a lot since those.)

HTH,
K-Dubbs

bertoni
04/19/2006, 12:53 PM
A fair number of people have used silica sand with no problems, but the esthetic issue is important. There are many types of silica sand in various colors, so look around and be sure you like what you get.

evil_monkey
04/19/2006, 02:41 PM
what about white silica sand? like pool filter sand?
this is what I use for my african cichlid tank.

Paintbug
04/19/2006, 03:01 PM
i use 150lbs of silica sand from HD. i dont really like the color like i do with agaronite sand but for the $$ im happy. i also have a sand sifting goby that loves sifting the sand.

techreef
04/19/2006, 03:07 PM
I couldn't agree more smcdonn,

I too have been knocking myself out chasing down this darn stuff. (aragonite oolitic sand) and coming up blank. I've read a lot of posts, including the infamous "All you could ever want to know about Southdown" thread, and what it seems to me is that aragonite sand is better than silica sand only in its buffering abilities if your tank pH gets below 7.8. The two sand types are the same in every other way.

Judging from all my reading, the anti-silica sand opinions seem to be a bogeyman story about diatoms pulling the silicate out of the sand and proliferating all over your tank. But one article i read about silicate-dependant organisms stated that they can and do pull silicate right out of the walls of your glass tank, so having silica sand in your tank is not exactly providing them w/ more ammo.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to find Southdown or KolorScape somewhere. (and may go looking again this weekend. sigh.:twitch: ) I would buy it in a second. But I'm trying my best to buy top line equipment (Deltec skimmer, Typhoon 3 RO/DI, etc.) and could really use the couple hundred bucks I'll save on LS by building my DSB using play sand. Any play sand. My God have mercy on my soul. :)

smcdonn
04/19/2006, 03:19 PM
Alright those are the responses I wanted. So where is a good place to find white silica sand? I know that all the sand in ashtrays around here looks really nice. I would have to steal alot of that stuff though. Anybody know where to get nice colored silica stuff? Thanks guys

techreef
04/19/2006, 03:33 PM
HAHAHAHAHA. Hadn't thought of that as a source. Hmmm.

bertoni
04/19/2006, 04:46 PM
If you just want an inch or so of sand for looks, any reasonably fine silica sand is likely okay, but there could be some products with unpleasant impurities, I guess.