ATTN: Bang!

[timsedwards]

Hi Bang,
If you could quickly read my thread 'ATTN: Kip', I did order some arag sand from my online supplier, but he kindly rang me to tell me that it isnt really sand, the particles are 3mm!
He did offer me silica though, just plain white marine silica sand which has tiny grains. Now kip warned me off silica, but I seem to have little choice? I was going to seed it with 20lbs of my exisiting live sand or so, and im getting 100lbs.
Does silica lose its whiteness?
Will it have a detrimental effect on my tank?
Do I need to cure it the same way I would arag?
Thanks for the help,
Tim.

 

[bang guy]

There's nothing wrong with Silica. A LOT of the marine seafloor is Silica based.
The problem is with artificially made fine sand. It is created by crushing and this can cause sharp edges. Sharp edges injure sand infauna and make life unpleasant for your detrivores.
If the sand was harvested from a quary then it should be fine. Silica does not cause algae. Silicate does. Many of the impure play sands contain vast amounts of silicate and that can be a problem. I read a study where bacteria slowly dissolved silica to creat silicate but the quantity was so low as to be nearly imperceptable.
If you can look at the sand under a magnifier to see if it sharp or not that should be the deciding factor.

 

[thomas712]

Originally posted by timsedwards
Does silica lose its whiteness?
Will it have a detrimental effect on my tank?
Do I need to cure it the same way I would arag?
Thanks for the help,
Tim.
Mind if I have a say here?
1. Silica will not loose its whiteness, IF you can find white silica sand. silica derives its colors depending on where it was tanken from geographically. Silica sand can contain tiny amounts of impurities, such as iron, manganese, chromium, calcium, or aluminum, and give the sand its color depending on how much of these impurities are contained within. Of course your milage will vary depending on the algea's produced in your system and the cleanup crews ability to assist in keeping it white.
2. Depends on the impurities, amount, and possibly the processing involved. for the most part people can and have used silica sand without any problems other than it not being as white colored as they would like.
3. Tim - not sure how you would cure your aragonite sand but it would probably work with any sand that you use.
Well thats it in a nutshell.
Thomas

 

[bang guy]

forgot to answer that one...
No need to cure Silica sand. Calcium carbonate will not precipitate onto silica.
Wear a mask when handling it though. The dust is really bad for lungs.

 

[thomas712]

Sure pretend I don't even exist

 

[timsedwards]

Wow thanks guys for all the help!
The sand is proper marine silica apparently supplied by Kent, so I would presume (and I will check) that it is pretty sure.
This stuff is whiter than any other i have seen also.
SO with the silica I can more or less chuck it in, i.e. no need to cure it for a week?
Thanks for your help,
Tim.

 

[smarls]

Tim,
Not meaning to hijack this thread, but...
if I have a CC base right now, would it be possible to vacuum out the CC and insert silica instead without having the tank cycle? (it sounds like silica does not cycle, or I may be misreading that)
The tank is 55 gallon, good water etc, established for about 2 years, lots of coral.
Thanks.
Stewart

 

[timsedwards]

OK just to keep you guys in the know, Ive ordered 100lbs of the white silica sand stuff, as it seems that that is what all the major suppliers use (after ringing around) and they seed it with 20lbs of live or so.
Thanks for all your help!
(Kip Ill be doing the FWExit today (ran out of time yesterday) so hopefully speak to you online today.)
Tim.