Play sand from Home depot, ok to use??

So, it is calcium carbonate??? So, it is silica free? Wouldn't calcium carbonate be the same thing that live rock is made of? You did get at home depot right??
 
Sorry about the bumps, i am just in a hurry to get this tank running and cycled. I have a guy wanting to sell me some corals and is waiting on me, but i got to have this tank up and cycled first.

Do you remember what time of year you bought the sand? I wonder if they would have it now? The home depot that is nearest me is 30 miles away.
 
if there is one way to go wrong in this hobby it is to hurry with anything. there are always more corals and deals.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13308010#post13308010 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by block head
less than 1% silica.i bought mine from hd. it might be seasonal.
Click to expand...


So, you are certain it is calcium carbonate? With little silica? What brand was it? What section did you find it at home depot? What time of year was it?
 
There are posts on other boards that say they contacted Pavestone direct and that the High Desert Sand is Silica based NOT CC.

Google : Pavestone sand
 
You'll usually only find the calcium carbonate sand on parts of the east coast unless someone specifically got it shipped to your HD. The sand is processed regionally using common packaging, so in some areas it will be calcium, but in most places it's silica since that's what the local source has.

Whether it's silica or calcium makes no difference to the function in the tank. The only issues are that silica looks different and my people don't like the look and silica scratches glass and acrylic easier. It's not going to make a difference in your buffering, cause massive algae blooms, or be detrimental to the sand sifting life.
 
Depending on what types of coral you are looking to put in here, I would say that if you get it cycled and throw them in they will have a tough time of survivng. Most corals require good params of a tank, a newly cycled tank has too much variance in the parans to be a stable environment to house corals for the most part.
 
I literally just read a thread on rushing corals...they said to wait AT LEAST 6-9 months before adding corals to let your tank stabilize. If you are in as big of a debate as it sounds just buy the LS from the LFS and that way you know it is the correct stuff.

I've also read, more than once, "only bad things happen quickly in reefkeeping"...
 
Yeah, i know i shouldn't rush the corals. But, i have added corals to tanks at times shortly after cycling and had little problems. But, it also depends on what you are adding. Lps and sps corals are not going to fare well for sure in a recently cycled tank. In regards to the sand, I am already using 2 inches of aragonite sand in the main tank. I will be adding some more from already setup tank(over two years). I just need to fill my sump up some more with some sand. I am just wanting to make sure that if i use cheap sand to do so that it doesn't cause me any problems in regards to water quality, algae blooms, or any other harmful things to corals. but i also think that if it isn't necessary to spend 80 dollars on sand when i could spend 15 to do the same thing, i would rather go that route. I am just wanting to see what everyone else thinks and their experiences.
 
I also checked with the pavestone manufacture closest to me(kansas city, Mo) and they don't distribute the High desert(at least that is what i was told). But a walmart close to me carries it. He said it was white in color. I wonder if it could be calcium carbonate or not if it whitish colored? I haven't personally looked since it is a 40 mile trip.
 
My tank is 150 gallons and I originally had it set up with live sand I bought from my local fish store (about 2" deep). I had no sump setup with the tank & was just running a hang on skimmer. I struggled with the tank for about 3 years and could not keep the nitrates down (over 100 ppm) & had the usual algea issues. After 3 years of that I started over. I bought about 250 lbs of Southdown sand from my local HD (it is very fine). My tank now has 4-5 " DSB all with Southdown sand and I added a 65 gallon sump with a 8 - 12" deep sand bed (same southdown sand). Tank has now been running like this for 5 years with zero nitrates and is really stable. I did not rinse the sand. No issues with silicate or phosphates either. I do not know if they still carry it. The sand is fairly white looking as well which I really like.
 
That is a pretty deep sandbed in the sump. I was wanting to get about a 5 inch bed or so in the sump. I wonder if that will do the trick on nitrate reducing bacteria? Anyhow, so i guess the southdown sand is silica sand? What was the brand name?
 
Southdown was aragonite sand from The Bahamas. It was only available on the east coast, except when it was specifically ordered farther west. Southdown was bought out by Yardright, which was then bought out by Oldcastle. Oldcastle also now owns Pavestone, so basically, Southdown and Pavestone are now the same company, but the sand will all be packaged as either Pavestone or Oldcastle sand. Again, the composition is going to depend on what's available to the local distributor. In Kansas, any locally packaged sand is most likely going to be silica since it's hard to get barges from The Bahamas up that way.
 
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