I need sand

[Jocephus]

Does anyone have around five lbs of live sand they'd be willing to part with? I'm looking for some to jump start my fuge, and I'd prefer to start with live.

Thanks,

Joe

 

[emonemo420]

nope srry!!

 

[icy1155]

Nope, we started with play sand from Home Depot... not even close to being live yet.

 

[Jocephus]

Looks like I may do the same.

 

[Gordonious]

Joe did you want it to be fine sand or would aragonite work? I could spare a couple pounds of aragonite, but if your planning on putting sand in there then it will look like a weird mix when your done. If you burry it completely, you'll lose some of what's alive, but if you want it anyway let me know.

 

[Jocephus]

Hey Jon, thanks. I don't really care what type, just looking for some life. It's going into a fuge on my 125.

 

[russellqueen]

I have some from my 90G that has been in a 5 gallon bucket for about 6 months, but I guess it is no different than the stuff you get in the store. May need a little wash, but definitely alive.

 

[Gordonious]

Just remind me before the club getts together or something and I'll grab a scope for ya.

Jon

 

[alprazo]

icy115 - did you use the plain white play sand from HD with silica, or were you able to find the old south down or tropical play sand?

 

[kaptken]

when i first started up my new 75 reef tank 9 years ago... I first added some local live rock, and then bought some snails, crabs and a few soft corals from GARF. AND about 5 pounds of their famous GARF GRUNGE to seed the sand. That did the trick. lots of good bacteria, bugs, sponges and micro snails and stars. sustainable biodiversity in a bag.

 

[icy1155]

I just used the play sand that they had there, sillica im assuiming. I dont worry about the sillicates leaching... i have used sillica sand before and didnt see any detremental effects. I also think that the pH buffering of live sand is slightly overrated in its effectiveness as well. The amount of buffering that it give you wasnt worth the ~400$ of sand as compared to about 10$.

 

[kaptken]

I agree Icy, i use Aragamite to remin my RO water. a few tablespoons full just lay in the bottom of my 20 gallon remin trash can forever. That is powdered aragonite. it does disolve in PH 7 RO water and then stops around PH 7.8 to 8. and only adds about 1 DKH of alkalinity to the water. very little buffer. which explains why my 9 year old aragonite plenum sandbed is still the same depth it was when i set it up.

by the time the PH drops enough to disolve aragonite, its too late. but it does provide a catastrophic event buffer for short term events. but never consider a sandbed the primary buffer/calcium source.

 

[alprazo]

Thanks, been away from the board for ~ 2 years. Good to be back. Setting up another tank and didn't know south down was gone. I hit 4 HDs, Lowes, Walmart and Angersteins this past week looking for sand - Then I remembered DRC and RC. Could have saved a lot of time. I thought silica sand could cause uncontrollable algae growth - good to know it doesn't. Anyone using pulverized limestone?

 

[Jocephus]

I used to work for an unnamed rock quarry. I did a couple of tests with pulverized limestone, and I don't think it would have much buffering capacity either. Barely makes a fizz in straight vinegar.