For terrestrial sand, use sand with minimal organic in it if possible. If there are lots of nutrients, there will be hair algae and lush macro algae. Continue harvesting these will decrease the nutrient level and will result in nutrient poor water.
I used silt that settles near the river mouth, lots of organic. It was fine for my tank. Last summer when I harvest the mud, the water temperature was 90+, so the organisms I got have no problem with the heat in my tank. It really added lots of diversity to my tank. I put 2 inches of this mud into my refugium (6 inches of sand there before)
I have use silica sand (sand for sand blaster) in my tank without problem. When I set up my first tank here in Corpus Christi, I used sand from Corpus Christi bay exclusively. The tank was thriving until a melted Rio pump puts out lots of copper into the water and kills all my shrimps and bleached all my corals. The tank recovered but never reach it former glory. I took the whole tank down, and buried the sand and rock in my back yard when I started my tank now. I was one of the first people to order sand from Home Depo. I got Southdown sand for 2.75 for the 60 lbs bag. I ordered a pallet of it. Gave away a bunch to friends and used 2000 lbs in my tank/refugium. I used Southdown because it is white, cheap and have little organic in it. The fact that it is CaCO3 rather than silica matter very little I think.
If I have to do this again, I will go out to South Padre Island and get several thousand pound of sand off of the sand dune. They look very white, very few organic in it and very fine (the wind deposit this sand off the beach). This will works great for a reef tank.
I used silt that settles near the river mouth, lots of organic. It was fine for my tank. Last summer when I harvest the mud, the water temperature was 90+, so the organisms I got have no problem with the heat in my tank. It really added lots of diversity to my tank. I put 2 inches of this mud into my refugium (6 inches of sand there before)
I have use silica sand (sand for sand blaster) in my tank without problem. When I set up my first tank here in Corpus Christi, I used sand from Corpus Christi bay exclusively. The tank was thriving until a melted Rio pump puts out lots of copper into the water and kills all my shrimps and bleached all my corals. The tank recovered but never reach it former glory. I took the whole tank down, and buried the sand and rock in my back yard when I started my tank now. I was one of the first people to order sand from Home Depo. I got Southdown sand for 2.75 for the 60 lbs bag. I ordered a pallet of it. Gave away a bunch to friends and used 2000 lbs in my tank/refugium. I used Southdown because it is white, cheap and have little organic in it. The fact that it is CaCO3 rather than silica matter very little I think.
If I have to do this again, I will go out to South Padre Island and get several thousand pound of sand off of the sand dune. They look very white, very few organic in it and very fine (the wind deposit this sand off the beach). This will works great for a reef tank.
