Confusion On Sand

[scubadiver48]

The more I read about substrate the more confused I get! Everyone is talking about finding Old Castle and Southdown sand at Home Depot, those products don't exist in Central Illinois(Lasalle/Peru/Ottawa area).
WHat other choices do I have since I am not able to find these at the home depots in the area?
Ottawa,Il is a huge supplier of silica sand for the country, this product is mostly used for making windshields and for abrasives in paint to make non-slip surfaces. I tried the vinigar test on it and no fizz, that means it is no good correct?(I assume the fizz is from a chemical reaction of calcium and the vinigar.
I don't want to spend $1-1.50 a pound for sand from the LFS can anyone in the area or anywhere for that fact offer some suggestions, I am getting frustrated and more confuse over the time I have been looking for it.

Thanks,Bob

[Billyk]

From what I have read here this is a topic of debate, for sure! Here is a recent thread (http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=2597696#post2597696) debating just that. Here is my opinion... Silica based sand is fine! You said it yourself that the sand produced in your area is used in windsheilds, aquariums are made of glass... The only benefit of aragonite is the added buffering ability. Even with aragonite though you will need additional buffering so aragonite is not a necessity. The most important aspect of the sand is the size of the grains. Here (http://www.rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm) is an excellent article by Dr, Ron that expounds on the subject of sand and it's function in a deep sand bed.

[scubadiver48]

Thanks for the links, I know there is no right or wrong answer it is all a matter of judgement and personal preference but some of these things are so confusing when you get conflicting reports.

Thanks again, Bob

[gcvt]

Yup, silica sand is perfectly fine. I've had it in my tank for two years without a single problem.

I used silica-based sandblasting sand. It's available in lots of different sizes and it's really cheap. The stuff I bought is pure-white and cost $15 per 100 lbs. If I could have found Southdown, I would have used that, but it's non-existent on the left coast.

[sfsuphysics]

Neat, wish I could of found some of that at homedepot. I used a quikrete 20mesh stuff, where the largest size in that is something like .7mm, wish I could of found 40mesh or smaller but it'll work on a hunch, and considering I needed close to 200lbs of sand, it was a lot nicer paying $16 for 200lbs than $160 for "southdown".

Besides I have calcium carbonate base rock, it'll buffer as well :)

[wwxc]

Do you actually need a sandbed?

[INNOVATOR]

Originally posted by wwxc
Do you actually need a sandbed?

...whole other debate, must do search as it's been discussed in full in numerous threads :)

[coyoteseven]

If you think about it, 99.999999% (or there about) of the ocean's bottom is silica based sand.

Just my 2¢ :smokin:

[MiddletonMark]

Actually, I don't know if the ocean is mostly silica sand.

Southdown, which is taken from the ocean, is aragonite [calcium carbonate] sand ... as I'd imagine much of the sand around reefs is [is formed by smashed limestone or coral skeletons].

---

As for needing a sandbed ... exactly. I found them to be over-rated ... with good flow, proper skimming, and not overstocking - you can run fine without one. A DSB may be a nice help when just starting up or if you have a crummy skimmer ... but will need replacement eventually [and maybe sooner].
Certainly not mandatory, and often does not fufill all the mystical promises that some claim they do.

[coyoteseven]

Reefs take up very little underwater real estate and there may be a substantial layer of carbonate based sand, due to natural erosion, around the larger ones. However, in the open ocean, the bottom is mostly bare sand... at least according to what I've read/seen in National Geographic and on the Discovery Channel. I also do a little SCUBA (when time and money permits) and all the small local reefs around here are surrounded by regular silica sand decorated with occasional rubble by my observations.

If I remember correctly (high school chemistry over 25+ years ago... MAN!!! Am I getting old!!! :lmao: ), silica is one of the most, if not the most, abundant compound on earth. Then again, I could be wrong... old age, dementia and Alzheimer's are catching up with me. :p

But anyhoooo... I've been using silica based play sand in my 45g without any problems for almost a year, now.

Again... just my 2¢ :smokin:

[MiddletonMark]

Well, I think it would be silica would be one of the most common elements on earth. How it's stored would vary ;)

But that's true as far as I remember from geology in grad school too ... and that's only about a decade ago!

[sfsuphysics]

Originally posted by coyoteseven

If I remember correctly (high school chemistry over 25+ years ago... MAN!!! Am I getting old!!! :lmao: ), silica is one of the most, if not the most, abundant compound on earth. Then again, I could be wrong... old age, dementia and Alzheimer's are catching up with me. :p


The most is oxygen :)
2nd is silicon, silica is Silicon Dioxide :) which makes sense :)

But you're right about the silica based sands, up and down the entire west coast there are no reefs, all that sand is silica (for the most part).

[shengster]

Originally posted by sfsuphysics
Neat, wish I could of found some of that at homedepot. I used a quikrete 20mesh stuff, where the largest size in that is something like .7mm, wish I could of found 40mesh or smaller but it'll work on a hunch, and considering I needed close to 200lbs of sand, it was a lot nicer paying $16 for 200lbs than $160 for "southdown".

Besides I have calcium carbonate base rock, it'll buffer as well :)

its doesnt cost $160 for southdown..i heard it only 5$s for 50lb bag...if u live in the left side of america...sucks for u, HD dont stock it over there

[sfsuphysics]

Exactly my point, if you live on the left side of america. Even those on the left side of america have difficulties finding it. A local reef club here was going to buy a couple pallets of it and end up cost $18 per bag, they're still figuring out how to get things setup, I sorta wanted my sand already. Cheapest you can buy it online was a guy selling bags on Ebay from iowa, with shipping it'd cost roughly $40 a bag. I sed 200 lbs, so it'd cost $160 for sand for me.

[coyoteseven]

You can't get it in Florida either and most of it originally comes out of Ft. Pierce (just north of Miami) before being shipped to Pennsylvania to be bagged by Southdown/Old Castle.