Any suggestions on sand?

[leoskee]

I bought the 220 from glipper69. Im going to install a closed loop in the tank using pvc with a grid along the bottom of the tank. I will need enough sand to cover the pvc and a few inches above that.

I was told that South Down is the best to use but it is not being produced. The company was bought out and now produces something called Old Castle play sand. Ive heard complaints about this sand due to high silica content.

Today I found Twin Oaks Play Sand. Has anyone ever used this sand? Any ideas as to another source for sand. I will cost an arm and a leg if I have to buy the carribsea aragonite sand for the 220.

Thanks.

Leo

 

[Tonyscoots84]

ur not gonna find south down... people all over have been looking for it.. go wit the sand carribsea aragonite is a good choice... there is a new sand from esv which is pure white (would be my 1st choice)

 

[lfsmarineguy]

If you go with Oolitic sand you can get away with a shallower sand bed as opposed to regular aragonite. The oolite allows for a lot more water flow through it due to it's rounded shape of the granules. It's like using golf balls for the substrate instead of bricks (more space for water). This also allows for better buffering and bacteria colonization. But don't mix it with anything but oolitic otherwise you defeat the purpose.

 

[fritz]

I like black sand.

 

[Pedro]

Stay away from southdown. That stuff is so cheap because it's crap. Spend the money on better sand, you won't regret it! With southdown all you get is dust storms with the higher flow.

 

[House of Laughter]

Stay away from southdown. That stuff is so cheap because it's crap. Spend the money on better sand, you won't regret it! With southdown all you get is dust storms with the higher flow.

Hmm, thats interesting - I think if you do it right, you'll not have this problem - 5yrs reefing and exculsively using southdown - no storms.

Kolorscape is what you want to use - it's a southdown blend with Durascape and serves the same purpose - I have 150lbs of it in my fish system and it's baterial colonization is no different than my 180 display which is exclusively soutdown.

Check with Samster, he bought 7 bags of the good kolorscape from me - I got it from a HD in northern CT (2.5 hours away) - no one local carries the good stuff anymore - all the stuff locally now is pure silica based.

JMO

House

 

[Pedro]

Glad it works out for you House, your tank shows that.

I know that with the amount of flow that i have now, i would have sand all over the sump. To each his own, but i spent the money and did not regret it.

 

[House of Laughter]

Well,

Truth be told, I don't have alot of flow in my SPS tank, so that's a whole nother story, BUT it does work for me.

I have 1100gph return and a Tunze 6000 and a Vortech at about 50% max. Occassionally I get a little sand vortex, but nothing that I worry about - if I kicked the pumps up, it would be a disaster.

I agree, though, some of the coarser sand gives you more options - it also goves you a hole in your wallet at the cost it would take to fill a 220.
I actually scaped out a buddies tank with 1/2 kolorscape and the otehr 1/2 coarser aragalive - saved him a bunch of cash and the look/difference is not discernable.

I would consider going with aragalive - this will get at least 1/2 my vote on my next system.

House