Play Sand in aquarium HELP

[superkracker]

Okay, after reading into the diatom situation I have figured out what my problem is! PLAY SAND from Home Depot. !$%*@
Do I have to take this out of the tank? If so what is the best way of doing this with coral and a little live rock in the tank? (It is a 75gl tank) Also, would I have to let it cycle again after removing it? ARRRRGGH..... Any suggestion would be great.

[sir_dudeguy]

wait. What kind of sand was it? (name brand). There are a few types that are ok to use. But as far as i know, the others wont cause diatom blooms. Diatoms are perfectly normal in new tanks and should always be expected....and your tank is new, so i personally wouldnt change anything just now. Just make sure your nitrates and phosphates are down and the algae will go away in time, provided you've got a good cleanup crew.

[superkracker]

What should I do in the meantime? Should I stir up the sand? leave it alone? I had my water checked and all is good.

Thanks again for the input, I just get confused as everyone has a completely different opinion.

[MimicTang]

diatoms are a good thing. Means your tank is maturing

[poppin_fresh]

I wouldn't sweat it just yet. I just added 50lbs of silica sand to a new 180 I'm setting up and I'm not worried. There is no evidence that silica sand fuels diatoms. I used aragonite only in my 72g tank and still had diatoms.

Leave the sand and just let the diatoms pass. It should be gone in a couple weeks. Adding some flow on the sandbed can help...just dont create a storm.

[sir_dudeguy]

dont stirr up the sand. IMO you shouldnt ever do that. Is the tank completely cycled right now? If so, add some cerith snails....maybe 15 or so. They were the best at cleaning that up for me. Turbos and hermits dont do jack diddly squat....ceriths and astreas are all i use (and they dont kill each other or other snails like hermits do). Let the critters naturally sift thru the sand, but dont do it manually...you'll just kick up whatever junk is in there.

Ceriths will clean basically everywhere, astreas will stay on the glass and rock, nassarius will clean UNDER the sand, but not the actual top layer. (good to have still). And your tank is big enough, so maybe a fighting conch would be a good choice for sand cleanup. They sift thru lots of sand but stay smaller than the queen conch (which gets like a foot long lol). But i'd wait till the tank stabilizes more before adding the conch.

but basically like mimic said...i'd be more worried if i didnt see any diatoms. Well, not really worried...but having diatoms and other algae in the beggining lets you know that the tank is going normally, and therefore is almost "wanted" by some reefers...imo, the sooner the diatoms and everything come in, the better...just means you wont see them later (if you keep levels correct)

[superkracker]

Already feel dumb so I'll ask this, what does IMO mean?

Thanks again for all the help. I'm sure I'll be back for more.

[kelley_mc]

IMO - in my opinion

[sir_dudeguy]

sorry bout that!

[theatrus]

Don't worry about anything. Non-aragonite (silicate) sands are just fine to use and won't cause abnormal diatoms. Diatoms are 100% natural and will pass/get eaten.

[kelley_mc]

Doesn't silicate feed cyano?

[billr]

May I ask a question???? What brand of sand from say Home Depot would be safe to use? Also, would regular beach sand from the gulf work? Sorry, didn't mean to steal this thread....Billr

[sir_dudeguy]

i would not use sand from the beach....you never know what dog might have peed in it lol, or what kind of polutant might have got into it from anything....i wouldnt risk the beach. If you want sand, then go out diving and get it, but i did that and i got some bad isopods w/it. The ones w/big black eyes. Luckily it was just for my 2.5g tank and not my main ones.

[TitusvileSurfer]

What about water from the beach ? I live 15 minutes from Canaveral National Sea Shore (NASA) and they don't let anything on the beach other than the ranger's quads. I can't see spending money every month for salt when I can fill 10 gallon buckets with mother ocean's finest.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

[sir_dudeguy]

again tho...."mother oceans finest" may not be mother oceans finest You never know whats in the water. The only time i'd feal comfortable taking water from the ocean is its way out at sea.

Also...gas prices are high right now (tho not as high as they were a year ago or so i guess), so a 15 minute drive is gonna cost you more money in gas than it would to buy a 160g bucket of reef crystals salt for 45 SHIPPED from drsfostersmith.com (i mean in the long run....15 minutes isnt gonna be more expensive in one go lol...it would take several trips to the ocean to cost that much).

It would be cheaper and much safer to just use your own water and salt and mix it.

[bill9999992]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by sir_dudeguy
[B]dont stirr up the sand. IMO you shouldnt ever do that. Is the tank completely cycled right now? If so, add some cerith snails....maybe 15 or so. They were the best at cleaning that up for me. Turbos and hermits dont do jack diddly squat....ceriths and astreas are all i use (and they dont kill each other or other snails like hermits do). Let the critters naturally sift thru the sand, but dont do it manually...you'll just kick up whatever junk is in there.


sorry for hitchhiking, but dudeguy, you said not a good idea to stir up sand bed so not to kick up any junk. Wouldn't you want to stir every once and awhile to get the junk out so your skimmer can get it. Rather then having the junk keep building up in sand bed until problem start?


bill

[TitusvileSurfer]

Originally posted by sir_dudeguy
again tho...."mother oceans finest" may not be mother oceans finest You never know whats in the water. The only time i'd feal comfortable taking water from the ocean is its way out at sea.

Also...gas prices are high right now (tho not as high as they were a year ago or so i guess), so a 15 minute drive is gonna cost you more money in gas than it would to buy a 160g bucket of reef crystals salt for 45 SHIPPED from drsfostersmith.com (i mean in the long run....15 minutes isnt gonna be more expensive in one go lol...it would take several trips to the ocean to cost that much).

It would be cheaper and much safer to just use your own water and salt and mix it.

I've heard you should go out to sea a few miles to collect, but this isn't your average beach. It is a national park with no residential condos for 40 miles north or south. NASA itself is about 2 miles away but the beach is natural, the same way it was 2000 years ago save 13 parking lots spread out at different points. I go surfing here 4-5 times a week regardless. Since I am there anyway, it wouldn't be any burden at all to fill a few buckets of water. I think I'll try it out when I get the tank initially and if it doesn't work out, drain it and buy salt crystals. It just seems like an unnecessary expense for an avid surfer with shallow pockets. This is also my first time posting on RC woohoo! Can't wait to start my first reef tank. I have been reading about it every day for nearly 2 months now. So far I've only kept a few FW tanks.

[sir_dudeguy]

Wouldn't you want to stir every once and awhile to get the junk out so your skimmer can get it. Rather then having the junk keep building up in sand bed until problem start?

not nessesarilly. when you kick up all that crud in there, you're gonna cause nitrates at the very least, but sometimes amonia too. But the stuff shouldnt build up if you've got a proper cleanup crew. (something to eat the poo, something to eat the gunk, and something to just sift thru for everything else).

[ACBlinky]

Originally posted by kelley_mc
Doesn't silicate feed cyano?

Yep, but it's much more likely to come from the water source than the substrate. Silicates fuel diatom blooms; silica, which is what most of the 'play sand' that's available at HD is made of, doesn't. If silica sands caused diatoms, so would the glass our tanks are made of

I use Stone Mason sand from Home Depot, pure white silica designed for pavers and sandblasting. It's very fine, uniformly sized, and extremely clean. Nothing wrong with aragonite, I have some in my 'fuge, but I like the clean look of sugar-sized, bright white sand in my display.