Lake sand Substrate?

[HABS#1]

Yes I have another question for substrate. Can you use freshwater beach/lake sand in the bottom of your saltwater tank? I hae a bucket full of sand that we have for our bearded dragon as his substrate for his habitat. I was wondering if I bake it in teh oven to kill off anything in it and then sift it could that be used in the bottom of a saltwater tank? Would this be any different than using kids playsand from home depot?

[rbursek]

It could have Silica in it.

[HABS#1]

Originally posted by rbursek
It could have Silica in it.

Well it came straight from Lake Huron so who knows. I am going to try it and see the tank is just getting set up so we shall see.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by HABS#1
Well it came straight from Lake Huron so who knows. I am going to try it and see the tank is just getting set up so we shall see.

IMHO the sand bed and live rock form the basis of your biological fitration of your tank for its life. I would buy good quality live rock and a good argonite sand bed--less problems over the long run.

besides--stuff from our great lakes doesn't look as nice as white argonite

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Rinsing well in water is a good idea, but beyond that it is likely fine to use. Natural silica sands are a better bet than mined ones as most easily dissolvable silicate is probably already dissolved off the surface. I wouldn't bake it.

[HABS#1]

Originally posted by Randy Holmes-Farley
Rinsing well in water is a good idea, but beyond that it is likely fine to use. Natural silica sands are a better bet than mined ones as most easily dissolvable silicate is probably already dissolved off the surface. I wouldn't bake it.

Ok great thanks. I went in today to pick up the caribsea direct livesand but they were out of it so I figured I had piles of sand from up at Port Franks so I could just use that instead plus it is much much ccheaper.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Good luck and Happy Reefing.

[HABS#1]

besides--stuff from our great lakes doesn't look as nice as white argonite

LOL I really do not care about white sand on the bottom of the tank to be honest. So for me brown lake sand will work just peachy.

RHF thanks for the info again it is appreciated I have always gotten great advice on here.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by HABS#1
LOL I really do not care about white sand on the bottom of the tank to be honest. So for me brown lake sand will work just peachy.

RHF thanks for the info again it is appreciated I have always gotten great advice on here.

just sift out the dead minnows and gobies

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by Randy Holmes-Farley
Rinsing well in water is a good idea, but beyond that it is likely fine to use. Natural silica sands are a better bet than mined ones as most easily dissolvable silicate is probably already dissolved off the surface. I wouldn't bake it.

Randy the sand around the great lakes has a high limestone base
Will that not be a problem in a salt water tank?

[Magga Pie]

Not trying to derail the thread or anything but can I use black gravel from an old tank in a FO tank? Or should I just go and get some sand?

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by Magga Pie
Not trying to derail the thread or anything but can I use black gravel from an old tank in a FO tank? Or should I just go and get some sand?

was it fresh water or salt water ?

there is black substrate for reef tanks but the coloured stuff for fresh water tanks would not be suitable in a reef tank

[wiscsaltwater]

You can and will do what you want but if you want my honest advice, Dont use lake sand, it could contain silica and who knows what, even though it is much much cheaper, If you can at all dont cut corners, especially with substrate and rock, it can be the single most important filter for your system.

If you can afford it wait until the live sand comes in or order it, i speak from experience because i did something similar in my 1st saltwater tank, i had a miserable time controlling my parameters and although i cant directly link it, when i finally switched out the substrate (pain in the royal ***) i ended up with more stability and little to no problems.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by wiscsaltwater
You can and will do what you want but if you want my honest advice, Dont use lake sand, it could contain silica and who knows what, even though it is much much cheaper, If you can at all dont cut corners, especially with substrate and rock, it can be the single most important filter for your system.

If you can afford it wait until the live sand comes in or order it, i speak from experience because i did something similar in my 1st saltwater tank, i had a miserable time controlling my parameters and although i cant directly link it, when i finally switched out the substrate (pain in the royal ***) i ended up with more stability and little to no problems.

I agree with you and actually posted that sentiment a few posts back
You also don't need live sand===one cup from the other tank will seed all your argonite.
And there are lots of places open tomorrow where the easter bunny is selling argonite

[wiscsaltwater]

right after i posted that i thought about what you just said lol, get aragonite and buy a pound of live sand to seed it from your LFS!!

[Magga Pie]

Originally posted by capn_hylinur
was it fresh water or salt water ?

there is black substrate for reef tanks but the coloured stuff for fresh water tanks would not be suitable in a reef tank

It was in my fresh water tank

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Randy the sand around the great lakes has a high limestone base
Will that not be a problem in a salt water tank?

No, that's not likely a problem. The only concern with many minerals is that something may dissolve. Ground rocks, for example, would often be a poor choice. But natural beach, lake and river sands have been washed for long periods of time (many many years), and so have mostly released what is readily dissolved.

Silica itself can very slowly dissolve, but the amount released is not likely a problem in most tanks (FWIW, I dose silicate to my tank). Freshly ground silica sand may be suboptimal as easily dissolved silicate occlusions on the surface will be more easily dissolved. I discuss silica and silica sand issues (and actually measure leaching) in the article linked below, but there are many fine tanks that use silica sand substrate:

Silica in a Reef Tank
http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm

[HABS#1]

Originally posted by capn_hylinur
just sift out the dead minnows and gobies

There Aren't any left in it I used them all for our bar b q fish fry last summer LOL. On a side note I am using straight crushed coral in our 31 gal contrary to many opinions on here I have never had a problem with nitrates and nitrites or ammonia with using this substrate and it is with straight tap water to boot LOL.

So the 75 has 20 gals of RO water and 50+ gals of tap water. I am now using a few pond pumps in it for some flow to help out the K1 while seeding and curing some additional liverock.

[wiscsaltwater]

I have never had a problem with nitrates and nitrites or ammonia with using this substrate and it is with straight tap water to boot LOL.

They say even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

Either you have exceptionally well tap water or your doing very very frequent water changes, or perhaps you just got lucky on the setup and everything is rolling for you. Its great that it works for you but i wouldnt advocate it to anyone else.

[HABS#1]

Originally posted by wiscsaltwater
They say even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

Either you have exceptionally well tap water or your doing very very frequent water changes, or perhaps you just got lucky on the setup and everything is rolling for you. Its great that it works for you but i wouldnt advocate it to anyone else.

To be honest we haven't even done a single water change and only top up the tank when needed. The system has been running since Oct.

[wiscsaltwater]

Then the gods have shone upon you, sure you can keep fish alive without water changes, but water changes are important to the chemistry of your tank, new salt restores trace elements. October is still a relatively new setup and i hate to see you setting yourself up for a catastrophic tank failure, My advice, take it or not, if you want to be successful in this hobby get yourself trained to do monthly water changes, just because you havent had to yet doesnt mean you shouldnt. Protein Skimmers, live rock, lighting, live sand, water changes are something i dont think anyone in this hobby should be without.

[HABS#1]

Originally posted by wiscsaltwater
Then the gods have shone upon you, sure you can keep fish alive without water changes, but water changes are important to the chemistry of your tank, new salt restores trace elements. October is still a relatively new setup and i hate to see you setting yourself up for a catastrophic tank failure, My advice, take it or not, if you want to be successful in this hobby get yourself trained to do monthly water changes, just because you havent had to yet doesnt mean you shouldnt. Protein Skimmers, live rock, lighting, live sand, water changes are something i dont think anyone in this hobby should be without.

I just picked up a used Excalibur skimmer and I am looking for people with info on setting this thing up. So the simmer is covered I am putting a deltec 300 on the new 75 we are setting up. The 75 is going to have a refugium 10 or 15 gal and the deltec along with lots of flow. Now this is way off topic from this thread about substrate isn't it.