Sand for Sand bed question.

[JRodrig692]

Hey everyone.

Did some searches here on the sand topic, I am just looking for some info on people using it long term. I see that some people have been using the Home Depot White Play sand in the tank mixed with some live sand (Carib Sea) and was wondering how it has been. Someone I know is setting up a 125 FO and I was looking for a way to setup the bed (shallow) using sand available to me and not having to buy and ship or spend $40 on a small bag and need like 10 of them.

So any sand info would be great. Thanks.

Joe

 

[blange3]

Hey Joe,

The 55 I just broke down had 5"-6" of the home depot white play sand. It was almost four years old.

I never had any problems that I attributed directly to the sand. I had various cycles of algae, cyano and dinoflagellates in the first year. But all were addressed without changing the sand.

For the last 2+ years I would get hair algae on the intake and outlet on the HOB fuge and that was it. Those were the only spots the cleanup crew couldn't reach.

I'll also admit that I wasn't as conscientious with the maintenance of that tank as I was with the LPS tank.

 

[Jcurry@wesketch]

I used a mix of Southdown and Agramax live sand for about six years and went throught the same algae cycles as Bill. I did get cyano on my sand regularly until I added 2 Tigertail cucumbers. Then I never had a spec of algae on my sand after that.

 

[JRodrig692]

Ok, from what I have been reading elsewhere online and here, looks like the entire issue with the concern over the silica in the sand was blown way out of proportion.

Bill, I am going to have him do what you have, will pick up sand at the HD and add a few bags of the CaribSea to the mix, along with a few cups of sand from my tank.

The algae issues that you guys had, I will take, due to it being the norm so thank you both for the info, I have my decision all set.

Joe

 

[JRWOHLER]

Well first the three of you are very experienced Reefers. So perhaps my belief is a bit different. I didn't want to have any "additional problems" to take care of so I went with 4 30 lb bags of dry sand and 1 40 lb bag of live sand from Drs F&S. Shipping was reasonable.
The posibility of negatives from silicates, contamination, or additives was just not worth it for me.

I no real outbreaks probably due to large amount of live rock and low bioload...but no sand issues.

 

[JRodrig692]

Did you get the dry sand from Foster/Smith and how bad was the shipping?

I have been in the reef game for a few years, but I still learn everyday. My tank is BB and have Southdown in remote beds, so I really have not been looking around on the sand issue, so I am happy to take any info that is out there on this subject.

Just wish it was April and That Pet Place was having their sale. Usually have bags and bags of open sand for like $5 each.

 

[cmsurfr22]

Just wish it was April and That Pet Place was having their sale. Usually have bags and bags of open sand for like $5 each.

are they going to have that this april?

 

[JRWOHLER]

The shipping was cheap on a per pound basis ...PA would have been like 250 dollars shipping . Think I spent 20bucks shipping but that was spread out over two buckets of salt, sand 160lb, ro/di unit and some misc stuff.

 

[Hawkeye]

Just wish it was April and That Pet Place was having their sale. Usually have bags and bags of open sand for like $5 each.

are they going to have that this april?

They will have the annual sale this year but I don't know (never knew) they had open bags of sand for sale. Probably because by the time I get there all the good stuff is gone! The place is a mad house if you've never been.

btw - i went to AqOb during the black friday sale and picked up 4 bags of black sand. I didn't bother checking into black dry sand only because (no matter how overblown silicates are or are not) I just didn't want the extra variable in my battle vs algae. So far I still get some algae issues (no cyano) but I think it has to do with my water change schedule, and small crew (coupled with the lack of a skimmer on a 120).