Beach vrs. Tank sand test

On Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:17:01 -0500, KurtG
wrote:

Tristan wrote:
So you can
really use a bag of playsand that costs $3.50 from the big box builder
supply store and a cup or two of live sand from LFS or a freinds
established tank

I can see torches, brooms, and pitch forks waving. I thought play sand
is just pure silica and better would be crushed carbonate from shells or
coral. or, a mixture. I haven't cracked my chemistry book in a long
time, but I think it may help maintain higher PH.

That is true however a lot of foks say silica sand will work just fine
if yu have live rock which also helps stabilize a tanks PH. You never
said what part of Florida your in, but unless your in the keys, odds
are the sand is silica based sand, since there is not any reefs to
amunt to much to create any aragonite sand. Eventhe sands on the
atlantic coast is not aragonte. I personally do not rely on my sand
to save my backside if a tank happens to crash.....and I have never
had a problem which could have been saved by aragonite sand over
silica or had a problem which was created by the sand I use. OPf
course an LFS will argue as they do not want to hear that silica sand
will work just fine and it can be had dirt cheap.

Although, I'm all for getting around the $60 for 20# of live sand. It
just seems wrong. I would think that beach sand w/ crushed shells from
any source would work just fine.

Yur so right, go get some sand and like I stated, the best mix of
grainsizes is usually what accumulates inbetween sandbars or on the
backside of say a jetty rock etc. Most other places its more uniform
ingrainsize, and heavier grains drop out long before the lighter do.
Silica grains are heavier than aragonite grains of comparable size.
Thats why they accumulate in washes or low areas between sandbars. Its
like mining forgold with a pan as to how the grains fall and separate
out with water / wave movement.

--Kurt



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I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!