substrate question

I have 75lbs of the Home Depot "Tropical Play Sand" in my reef tank. It is
full of critters, it stays milk white, the fish, snails etc all play in it
and it has the gas bubbles evident of denitrification. I did not even seed
it with live sand from LFS! So what's wrong with it in your opinion?

John

"Rich R" wrote in message
...
I tried the home depot brands,NOT GOOD!! If your going to do a DSB you
should do it right from the beginning or you will get hell,,,Its what helps
support the system and unless you have 20 cent minnows in the tank I would
not mess with the proven way.Trust me I tried

--


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"Chris Gentry" wrote in message
news:N_p_d.145516$tl3.49247@attbi_s02...

"Quiet Reef" wrote in message
news
Hi the

Do any of you think it would be possible to use tiny glass beads 1-2mm
in the substrate? They would be inert, wouldn't they?

Thanks,
quietreef

I'm sure you could use this as a substrate, but I think it would only be
for
your viewing pleasure. You might do some research on grain sizes of Deep
Sand Beds (DSB) to find out if this would work at denitrification. Also
you
wouldn't get any buffering capabilities for your system. I'm also not
sure
if detrivores would burrow into glass beads, so it might be a problem
keeping it clean.

Those are just my thoughts. I don't have any real research to back it
up.
I did use glass marbles for freshwater fish breeding at one time, and
glass
is inert, and won't harm the fish. It is my opinion that you should use
an
aragonite sand, and if you don't want to pay a fortune for it, try
looking
for southdown/yardright/old castle brand sand at home depot, or your
local
landscaping companies. Yard right sand is sold as Tropical Play Sand at
some of these places. If you can't find that, I would at least go with a
decent silica based sand. I do have to say though, that there is debate
on
whether silica based sand is good for your tanks, but so far all the
research I have done, has led me to believe that this is all bunk, and it
is
ok for your tank. But only you can make that decision. -Chris