sand question

[msudawgs56]

hi, im about to set up my first sw tank..i have a 46 gallon bow..im wanting to setup a 4 inch sand bed.. is there anywhere to get good sand cheap? I've heard to stay away from silica sand.. i cant get the southdown sand.. any suggestions??? Any online stores...

thanks

 

[crzy4reefs]

i think people have used playsand. or you could order dry sand on line. the live rock will seed the tank. and if you have a reef club near you, sometimes they can offer a cup of sand, make sure they have no known parasited in their tanks.

 

[TekCat]

From what I hear, lots of people have successfull reefs with silica sand. Just wash it well before using it.

4" - looks like you're making a DSB. In this case you'd need as fine as possible sand (opposite to coarse).

I agree with crzy4reefs, dry sand will be seeded by LR, so don't spend money on so-called live sand in bags.

 

[michaeldaly]

The beach supplies good cheap sand, if you can find a clean beach,

 

[Pandora]

When I could not find enough Southdown or comparable aragonite, I did use some silica based sand to "fluff up" the DSB; it just wasn't a large ratio. The issues with silica are mostly that the sand packs a little too tight (grains too small), and it is not oolitic (round, egg-shaped) in shape, so dentrivores and sand sifters do not like it as much. It also doesn't provide any of the buffering that calcium carbonate does, but you can still get this from your rock and the natural buffering capacity of whatever you are using to add calcium. There are somewhat unfounded concerns about some possibly leaching other things into the water (silicates, etc), but I really believe these are negligable in practice, there's been little evidence of this. Play sands are, after all, made to be inert; always the possibility of kids putting it in their mouths, etc.

 

[msudawgs56]

thanks i really appreciate the help.!!!!

 

[panaboy95]

i am just following along here i am also building a dsb mine is going to be remote so i do not care what color it is. sounds like to me i am just going to use some normal play sand. thanks for the post and thanks for the help

 

[Pandora]

If you guys have (quite a few) extra minutes to kill, might want to check this thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26193
"Everything you ever wanted to know about Southdown"

Warning, when I say long, it is very long. But pretty much covers all the bases about this elusive "perfect" sand, potential sources, and I think there are some spin-offs that talk about possible alternatives too... worth a read!

Oh, and since no one mentioned it yet to you two:
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

 

[panaboy95]

wow that is a long thread. i think i get this stuff now. fissing good no fizz bad.