Safe Home Depot Sand
- Thread starter SCARYBO
- Start date
GTR
Active member
We can only get silica/quartz sand at HD or Lowe's. Some say it's ok but I prefer to not risk long term problems when I've already spend so much money on a system.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm
SteveU
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm
SteveU
CW from the OC
New member
Hey Steve,
I read your link the Randy's article, and I read the entire thing. At the end, he actually recommends ADDING silicate to our systems, shows how to do it, and where to buy it.
My point is that you seem to post that link as a reason not to use silica based sands, when it actually supports using silica sand over calcerous based sands, as a potential source of needed silica for our systems. Randy makes the point that organisms we want, like sponges, mollusks etc, actually need more silica than is what in our reef tak.
I read your link the Randy's article, and I read the entire thing. At the end, he actually recommends ADDING silicate to our systems, shows how to do it, and where to buy it.
My point is that you seem to post that link as a reason not to use silica based sands, when it actually supports using silica sand over calcerous based sands, as a potential source of needed silica for our systems. Randy makes the point that organisms we want, like sponges, mollusks etc, actually need more silica than is what in our reef tak.
GTR
Active member
I've read it before and that's why I provided the link. :thumbsup:
I have plenty of silica in my source water and it seems to be the first thing to slip by the RO/DI. I'm growing SPS and not sponges, etc. When my DI is in need of service I can tell by the growth on the glass, eggcrate and frag plugs. It also seems to fuel cyano growth (in my case the true blue-green strain) so I try to limit imported silica as much as possible.
From his tests of play sand he shows a considerably amount comes out. Also keep in mind that the sand available to us is a mined and ground-up product and not collected from a beach someplace and may have a considerable amount of impurities fresh for the leaching as Randy stated. Never tried to see how much magnetic metal might be in this sand either.
SteveU
I have plenty of silica in my source water and it seems to be the first thing to slip by the RO/DI. I'm growing SPS and not sponges, etc. When my DI is in need of service I can tell by the growth on the glass, eggcrate and frag plugs. It also seems to fuel cyano growth (in my case the true blue-green strain) so I try to limit imported silica as much as possible.
From his tests of play sand he shows a considerably amount comes out. Also keep in mind that the sand available to us is a mined and ground-up product and not collected from a beach someplace and may have a considerable amount of impurities fresh for the leaching as Randy stated. Never tried to see how much magnetic metal might be in this sand either.
SteveU
GTR
Active member
I've seen the quarries ours come from.
Again as Randy said, it might still be ok to use. But then I don't want to be tracking down another problem if it arises even at the cost difference. BTW, all my sand is remote anyway and it would be an easy fix to remove and I still prefer hobby produced sand.
Again as Randy said, it might still be ok to use. But then I don't want to be tracking down another problem if it arises even at the cost difference. BTW, all my sand is remote anyway and it would be an easy fix to remove and I still prefer hobby produced sand.
I'm no silica/silicates expert but I personally would not risk using the silica based playsand on my own system. Take a look at this.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=899865
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=899865
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