Rate My Fish Tank

Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:47 am GMT   Reply      

What is your opinion on putting play sand in a reef tank. I've heard that it's not a good idea espicially from fish stores, but I'm also reading that it's ok as long as you wash it. I know I don't want to spen $500.00 on live sand. Any other kind of cheap sand I can use?

Sun Jun 28, 2009 1:16 am GMT   Reply      

whats play sand?????????

Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:18 am GMT   Reply      

you can use it.......BUT.....it HAS to be silica free. Or else you will have BIG problems.It cant have any silica in it at all........or your defeating the purpose compltely. Ever thought about bare bottom?

Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:20 am GMT   Reply      

play sand is "clean" usual light brownish sand you can buy at like lowes or home depot here Puff, doesn't have sharp shells or coral chunks for lil ones to get cut on, it's used for sandboxes and under swing sets on playgrounds

Serial32 used it in his 29 gallon fresh water tank and it was beautiful, you have to wash the shit out of it first, but it looked really natural and he never had any issues.................still useing it as far as i know - - - but thats a fresh tank - -i would imagine "neutral" sand is fine for either salt or fresh ............no?

the only problem he did have with it was he had to move his filter intake up to about the top 2/3rds of the tank because the fish would stir up the sand sometimes {very little amounts} and suspended sand would get into the filter and trash the impellers. he put a power head in there once and it lasted about 3 days before it dtonated itself on sand particles

so low flow tanks should be fine, high flow tanks will be a sandblasting factory...lol


Boss

Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:06 am GMT   Reply      

Its an oolite grade of sand basically. A buddy of mine uses it in his tanks.....he got a bag of (special dry reef sand). We opened up the bag........it looked like play sand without any silica. which is basically what it was I think. Had an intial bloom on the surface, but now its gorgeous and perfectly white.

Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:34 pm GMT   Reply      

I can not find any silica free sand. I keep reading about different sand that doesn't contain it, but it's never available also most of the forums questions are about 3 years old.

Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:37 pm GMT   Reply      

http://www.woodwardsace.com/safe_play_sand.htm

Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:36 am GMT   Reply      

RRRRR sand pit or builders sand here in oZZZZZZZZZ\

Wed Jul 01, 2009 6:05 pm GMT   Reply      

So rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse....keep rinsing and rinse some more?

I got 100lbs of play sand, no mention of silica in it. Looks somewhat like sand you'd see on the beach...slightly finer though. Anyhow, I went through above 400 gallons of pure hot water rinsing this stuff out. At this point, the water is only slightly cloudy now when i mix the sand around. So I have a few questions:

1) How much more do I have to rinse it?
2) Do i have to soak it in water for a while to absorb any anti-fungal or other chemicals out of the sand?
3) Do I have to boil the sand?
4) Is there anything I'm forgetting.
5) Should I put my skimmer on the water in this thing to pull stuff out of the water (I was told the skimmer can pull copper and medications out of my tank)

And the BIG question:

6) Will this help or function with (or as) a Deep Sand Bed?

Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:59 pm GMT   Reply      

lots of questions there. Ill list them in the order you asked them

1) you cant rinse enough. :) If you think it should be rinsed again.....do it again. The more thats out of it now, is that much less you will have to take out of it in your tank.

2) same thing....if you want to soak it in saltwater.....it wont hurt. You could even jump start it first that way. :)

3)Nah.......boiling......nah. never heard of it.

4) Not that I know of. when was the last time you changed your underwear? I always forget that. :)

5) Always run your skimmer. ALWAYS. As long as theres water to run it......run it. :) It will always help your water......as for pulling out medications and copper.......never heard that.......I think they are full of poo.

6) THE BIG ONE.......Yeah, as long as it stays stirred by sand sifting creatures your sand will do the trick. Maybe a few cucumbers and nassarious snails out the ying yang. :)

Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:01 am GMT   Reply      

carbon will pull meds ...........not sure on the copper, the other reason you hear people saying to turn off the skimmers is because they get suspended solids out of the column, so if you have cloudy sandy water for a few days ................i would turn my skimmer off as i dont want that grit and crap in my skimmer making it explode {not litterally} - the "dust" will settle and calm down, if you've cleaned that sand like mad it will settle in a couple days and be fine -running your skimmer is completely up to you..........................IMO its risky......................double up on the a filter sock if you have a sump or whatever your useing as a pre filiter to catch big junk and let it go

BOSS

Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:19 am GMT   Reply      

Yeah, its a pain the rear to clean your skimmer after all the dust. I ran it......because I had fish. And I didnt want them to suffer any longer than they had to. It took me a while to add sand. And its going to when I add my Caribsea Oolite. You would go through three or four filter socks, but thankfully they are easy to clean. :) Certainly do like boss said and do a filter sock. Its like crack in cleaning.

Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:42 am GMT   Reply      

I have a question to add. What would it be like with a korilla pointed at it? I'm guessing you would not want something directed right at it or it would blow up too much dust. I too have a bag of playsand (haven't checked if it's silica free or not yet) that I would love to use.

Sun Jul 05, 2009 2:22 pm GMT   Reply      

I picked up some play sand at Lowes, and I've been rinsing it extensively. Anyhow, with the whole silica issue, how soon would I know if there was silica in the sand? And how long would it take for me to know it.

Sun Jul 05, 2009 7:43 pm GMT   Reply      

silica is basically regular sand.............glass etc..................it tends to promote algae growth so you'll know it pretty quick i would think, serial32 used lowes playsand and really never had any issues with algae in a fresh water tank, i cant speak to salt systems though