The Reef Tank banner

Nothing in this life is easy.....

1K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  DaveJ 
#1 ·
Okay folks...

I am putting in the DSB this week and went sand shopping today. Found quite a selection, now to the question... which one should I purchase?? I found some very fine silica white sand that looked really nice. Only argonite I could locate was at the fish store and it was 17 bucks for a 30 lb bag. I need about 180 lbs.... I have read a few posts that say that silica is bad, other say it is fine... anyone want to go on a limb and give me a definitive answer??? Also, someone on another board mentioned he was going to add some lime powder to his sand and Dr Ron seemed quite enthused about that. Any of you have tried it???
 
#2 ·
The chief problem with silica sand to my mind is density: the stuff tends to pack down harder than calcareous grains (just my impression). This probably has an effect on the mobility of in-bed fauna, the deeper you make the bed.

As for limestone powder, the issue would be potential contamination.

But, that's just me
 
#3 ·
Horge,

Thanks for responding. I will probably mix the silica with the argonite in there right now. Hopefully that will help with the compacting question. What do you think?? When you say contamination, what type ? Chemical??? Anything to look out for?
 
#4 ·
Dave;

I was looking at different types of substrate just a while back. If you do a search on "silica sand" on this and other boards you'll come up with some more info on what was already outlined by Horge.

~Alice
 
#5 ·
Don't know if this will help you or not but I like prewashed pool filter sand. It comes in 50 pound bags and costs about five bucks a bag. It has a nice grain size for silica sand and mixes easily with oolitic substrate like Aragamax. A good mix is 30 pounds of Aragamax to 50 pounds of pool filter sand. You can build a nice DSB this way for considerably less. HTH
 
#8 ·
Thanks, Dave,
I posted this followup question on that thread:
Dr. Ron,
Now, I am confused!

Dave asked about adding lime powder to the substrate and you indicated this might be a good idea. Wouldn't lime powder in any significant quantity boost pH to abnormal levels? Wouldn't it bind to the other sand particles to make a sort of Reef-Quik-Crete?
Dick
 
#9 ·
There must be some mis-communication about the addition of lime powder to the substrate. Lime would IMHO, increase the pH to intolerable limits for the tank. That's why limewater (Kalkwasser) has to be introduced in relatively small quantity and slowly.
I suspect that what may have been suggested would be Calcium powder, some sell this as Aragomight, or something like that; which might be powdered aragonite; for some buffering to the silica sand. I don't know. It would be helpful to find Dr. Ron's actual statement so we could be sure what he was referring to.
I personally wouldn't add anything but as much aragonite sand as possible with the best quality ordinary sand you can use.
Dick
 
#10 ·
Dr. Ron clarified the reference to "lime powder" which should be understood as powdered Calcium Carbonate rather than Calcium Oxide or Calcium Hydroxide. Either of the "-oxides" would be very bad for the tank as a sandbed medium.
Dick
 
#11 ·
Yep.. I figured that is what he meant. Just have to be careful with that Lime thing


Update here... I got in touch with my local Home Depot, they are looking into transferring some Southdown to me. I will know tomorrow if they can get any for me or not. The guy was pretty nice and really perked up when I told him how much money he would be saving me!!

Also... Paragon and Inland are both out of Liverock <sigh>. If I can get the sand this week, I will do the DSB and add the rock later. I don't want garbage rock...

Drewman.. you sucked them dry dude!!! I think you got one of the last orders.

Just more proof that things in life are not always as easy as they should be
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top