help, substrate question

[pilsbury]

I think I may have made a critical blunder. In choosing a substrate I listened to someone who suggested using Home Depot "play sand" as my DSB. I decided against 100% play sand and went with 100lbs of play, 60lbs of fine crushed coral, giving me a decent 4" bed for seeding...The problem is that I have now have a brown swamp. It has been three days and it has only settled marginally. Any advice on the use of play sand substrate? Can it be done or should I pull out the siphon?

[toefu]

i know i'm the not as professional as most of these people on this forum, but did you rinse the playground sand multiple times? it took me about 4-6 rinses to finally clean up the sand... the first 3 rinses, the water was still brown mud-like.

and even after i rinsed it 4-6 times, it took 2 days for the water to clear up. now my tank is doing fine with lr, got zillions of bugs in there.

[bill-e]

You can do one of 2 things. Leave it alone and it will clear, or put a mechanical filter on the tank and that will clear it.

If you can wait, I'd suggest trying to let it settle a bit, using the mechanical filtration sparingly because the fine stuff that's floating is great for the sandbed. It could take up to 2 weeks to completely clear. Once the bacteria has gotten a foothold, it will help some.

You could also go out and get another bag of the fine crushed coral or aragonite and lay that on top to help stabilize it.

No, you did not make a mistake, that's what happends, and like i said, if you're patient, you will have a very nice sandbed.

[Rick O]

Did you use the HD sand made by Southdown? It is actually coral sand. Other brands may be silica sand. If so you will need to remove it or else take a chance of having continuous algae problems.

Rick

[cwa46]

Rick O,
Why do you feel that silica sand causes algae blooms? Also, do you have any proof. I recently questioned the fact that aragonite helped buffer our water, and after the dust settled there was no proof to that rumor either.

[cwa46]

Why ask for advise when you won't follow it????

[Drew]

If it is the Southdown sand then it should be some good stuff. I wouldn't rinse it or try to take any of the suspended particles out. These ultra-fine particles are great for a DSB. They provide a place for the bacteria which every tank needs. To get the tank clear I would either get some live sand from a LFS or another reefer, or get some live rock and put that in the tank. If you can do both, its even better. Then all the organisms from the LS/LR will begin to colonize the fine particles and they will fall out of suspension. The tank may be cloudy for a while, but later on you will be very happy with your DSB. HTH.

Drew

[pilsbury]

Thanks all for the advice...it seems to be settling nicely on its own...I don't know if it was Southdown sand or some other...I threw the bags away already. I'll have to check at HD to see what I bought...I know I am opening up a can of worms with this question, but anybody have any opinions about chemical water clarifiers? As in the magic stuff that you add to the tank that makes cloudiness go away...I saw some at my LFS that claims that it contained no slufates, didn't affect PH and contained no heavy metals...but still didn't list the ingredients...

CWA46, how do you know I won't take any advice given? I asked because I am sure there are more experienced aquarists reading this message board than myself...if I didn't intend to take any of the advice given, why would I ask for opinions on what to do?

[Drew]

It's good to hear that things are settling down. As for the the chemical water clarifiers, I believe that what they do is (somebody please correct me if I'm wrong) bond the suspended particles together, so that they weigh enough to fall out of suspension. Either way, you will get the same if not better results if you add live rock and/or live sand. I would prefer not adding chemicals to my tank, I have found that in this hobby, the natural way is usually the best way. HTH.

Drew

[Rick O]

Originally posted by cwa46:
Rick O,
Why do you feel that silica sand causes algae blooms? Also, do you have any proof. I recently questioned the fact that aragonite helped buffer our water, and after the dust settled there was no proof to that rumor either.

I don't feel like I have to prove it but if you want to learn more about water chemistry you can go to Kent Marine's website and there is a section on algae control which discusses the role of silicates in algae.

Rick

[Doug1]

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/r_toonen9.html

[Rick O]

I stand corrected.

Rick

[tdwyatt]

Rick,

The source of most of the water-soluble silicates are those from freshwater rivers and the like, and are Alumino-silicates, not the silicate of glass, (i.e., Silicon dioxide). Although some aluminosilicates are found in river (more so) and beach (somewhat less) sand, the sands from these sources generally do not support anything more than the initial blooms of marine diatoms that occur as the biotope develops enough biodiversity to develop competition for those resources. Without silicates, we cannot have sponges or turnicates in our tanks, as most sponges use silicates to make the structure of their bodies. If you need a reference, I believe it is mentioned in TRA vol 1 (Sprung/Delbeek) and in most invertebrate zoology texts, for sure in Ruppert and Barnes. The reason we see diatoms primarily on the glass is that the glass presents a smooth substrate that we can see large numbers of the organisms on and easily visualize them, especially when we look at them from the side view; not that they are extracting silicates from the glass. One of the great advantages of using glass in qualitative chemistry is that for all practical purposes, Silicate glass is insoluble in all common solvents and does not provide free radicals or ions or other contaminates to interfere with analysis. This holds true for the aquaria as well, at least, I could not find any data to show that salt water dissolved any quantitative (detectable) amounts of silicate (CRC, USP, NF, Textbook of Organic Chemistry, Textbook on Inorganic Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmacology and Therapeutics). Just a statement of information, this is not to rub salt into the wound.