Using silica "gulf of mexico" live sand

[SoundsFishy2me2]

I've seen in a thread where people were buying "play sand" for their tanks-- Hm. ok but then I saw someone make a coment saying watch out for silica sand like Florida's gulf beachs have. I've heard this before and don't know why people say it. I have a friend who went to the gulf and dug live sand "wild" and has since keep his tank up and running for a few years... That's Silica sand-- why is it bad? I didn't like the white grany look of our sand (what he had) and went to the east coast of Florida and got my own Dk gray sand-- I've had a great reef tank for years with it... (I don't think it's silica sand on the Alantic side)
does anybody know why silica sand is bad?

 

[greenbean36191]

People think it's bad because they think it contributes to diatom growth, the edges are sharp so animals don't like it, and that it doesn't provide buffering like aragonite.

There diatom thing comes from people assuming that silica sand will become a source of silicates, which diatoms need. With clean silica sand, that doesn't happen. Also, the animals living in the sand couldn't care less about whether the grains are rounded or jagged. It makes no difference in the wild and people have done diversity surveys in their tanks with the same result. The buffering issue assumes that aragonite sand dissolves enough to significantly impact your water parameters, which it doesn't.

Basically, the only reason not to use silica sand is looks.

 

[SoundsFishy2me2]

I thought so... Thanks. I thought it looked grany in his tank until he added a small amount of live mix and tiny bit of black sand, then it looked fine. Your right, his tank didn't seem to have any abnormal problems.

 

[SoundsFishy2me2]

FYI: I've since found another thread regarding sand alternitives, they say you can also use a play sand product called "tropical sand" which is silica free. (not my org. question but related) here's the link they had.

http://www.yardright.com/sand.htm

 

[xcreonx]

Years ago when I lived in FL, I collected my own sand off of Sarasota. Never had any problems with it. I sifted it carefully, yet months later I had several sand dollars emerge. They must've come in as larvae. They lived great for years and grew pretty quickly. I like Gulf sand. It's not the prettiest, but full of life.

 

[Paintbug]

i have been using silica based sand since the beginning. im starting to not really like the looks now . but i have a sand sifting goby that doesnt mind it at all. i dont have a huge ditatom problem, and my water parameters stay in line. the only problem i have noticed, is with my open brain coral. it started a new bud and is now in cased with the sand. its almost like it cant grow because it cant start to form a skeleton from the sand. its been this way for about a year.

 

[cristhiam]

I have a 5" DSB with playsand from lowes (silica) no problems, also my yellow watchman doesn't have a problem sifting sand.