Cloudy tank

You made the right choice, Hammer. Southdown sand is cheap, but even
people that use that aren't always happy. The stuff at the LFS costs
more, but you never hear complaints about it later.

Marc


Hammer wrote:
gave up on the play sand. It just looked like mud in the tank after
two weeks. I went to the my LFS and got some fine sand for a base with

live sand on top. By the way the man at the fish store told me play
sand would work IF you had the right sand. He told me that their is
only one brand you can use - Southland - which is only available on the

East coast. Well living in Washington state that isn't much help to me.

Thanks for everyones help. Will try to keep you all posted on how
everything worked out


--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

FYI: I used silica play sand. Works great...
Been up for 1 year.

"TheRock" wrote in message news:7qRif.567$gi3.546@trndny09...
FYI: I used silica play sand. Works great...
Been up for 1 year.

And you do not have problems with too high silicates ?
No brown algae ? I know people using Hi-Si filters
to get rid of silica from the tap water and your usage
of silica sand must elevate silicates in the water... :-)

I actualy add potasium silicate to my reef tank, to
encorage diatom algae. But no, silica sand does not
disolve well in in the aquarium, and nether does the
silica glass that holds the water in.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Pszemol wrote on 11/29/2005 11:28 AM:
"TheRock" wrote in message
news:7qRif.567$gi3.546@trndny09...

FYI: I used silica play sand. Works great...
Been up for 1 year.


And you do not have problems with too high silicates ?
No brown algae ? I know people using Hi-Si filters
to get rid of silica from the tap water and your usage
of silica sand must elevate silicates in the water... :-)

"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message ...
I actualy add potasium silicate to my reef tank, to
encorage diatom algae. But no, silica sand does not
disolve well in in the aquarium, and nether does the
silica glass that holds the water in.

It does not dissolve well - this is true...
But in chemistry there is not such thing
as unsoluble substances - water is so great
that *some* amount will always dissolve in it.
For some substances it will be much, like NaCl
or sugar. For some others, like CaCO3 it will
be only 400mg/l and then it stops, but still
some amount will find the way to the water.

Compare data for silicon dioxide (quarz)
with data for calcium carbonate CaCO3.
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/pr...8/icsc0808.htm
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/pr...1/icsc1193.htm
They both are listed as "insoluble", but we aquarists
know better than CaCO3 is in fact soluble in water and
we can get concentrations of calcium on the level of
450mg/l from CaCO3 without any big difficulties...

Also - there is silica available in sea water,
so it must come from somewhere - I would be
interested in knowing what is the source of
soluble silica in the sea water. Diatoms are
able to get it somehow for their own usage...

Interesting subject - I wish I knew more about chemistry :-)

"Pszemol" wrote in message
...
"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
...
I actualy add potasium silicate to my reef tank, to encorage diatom
algae. But no, silica sand does not disolve well in in the aquarium, and
nether does the silica glass that holds the water in.

It does not dissolve well - this is true...
But in chemistry there is not such thing
as unsoluble substances - water is so great
that *some* amount will always dissolve in it.
For some substances it will be much, like NaCl
or sugar. For some others, like CaCO3 it will
be only 400mg/l and then it stops, but still
some amount will find the way to the water.

Compare data for silicon dioxide (quarz)
with data for calcium carbonate CaCO3.
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/pr...8/icsc0808.htm
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/pr...1/icsc1193.htm
They both are listed as "insoluble", but we aquarists
know better than CaCO3 is in fact soluble in water and
we can get concentrations of calcium on the level of
450mg/l from CaCO3 without any big difficulties...

Also - there is silica available in sea water,
so it must come from somewhere - I would be
interested in knowing what is the source of
soluble silica in the sea water. Diatoms are
able to get it somehow for their own usage...

Interesting subject - I wish I knew more about chemistry :-)


This was something that I struggled with for months before setting up my
tank.
I was starting out fresh, so I said screw it...not the best attitude but
I guess I got lucky. I found some healthy debates on the Internet .
Since then I've topped it off lightly (1") with some prettier agra-alive and
Agronite.

I never tested Silica levels. I never saw a reason to. my corals are
healthy, my fish are healthy
and I don't have any Diatom Blooms. I also use RO/DI water, maybe that
helps.

Knock on wood !

It looks like mud, this is a good thing. Until you add a heavy biological load in the form of life in the tank live rock, fish, corals, you will not have the appropriate bacterial activity, will remain loose sand. This is the bacteria to stick together sand, sand box in a mature reef would not be so muddy.