Is play sand safe????

[michaeltx]

I'll put my naturally colled salt water and locally collected sand beds up against any aragonite or synthetic water tanks any day. If its good enough for momma nature I see no reason not to use it either.
Thats fine but we are not talking about sand collected from a natural shore. we are talking about sand that has been through a manufacturing plant that can cause a lot more pillutants and other stuff to added in to the sand before its packaged for resale. IMO there are to many things that could wrong and chemicals that can be accidently added to the sand before its even packaged. plus it can have a mix of many different sands can get mixed before it its bagged.
IMO
Mike

 

[chipmaker]

I was referring on my sand beds beinbg silica based sand not aragonite sand since it seems to be the perspective that its necessary to have aragonite sand. I was not making any reference as to their ____________or what ever you want to read into it. Just the fact I will put my silica based sand beds up against any aragonite bed...pretty simple statement if you ask me! Really matters not if it was colled naturally or not, I just happened to collect allmy sand locally. Store bought silica is no different than any other store bought sand when yu get right down to it, and there is no way one can say its good or bad until they try it since we all lack labs to check it. So one hag may be fine but the next may be totally off....so whats the point in worry if its any good or not if yur gonna use it use it and see. Since its not labeld for aquarium use it makes no difference since people make their own decisions and what your paranoid with can also happen with labeled aquarium sands as well....

 

[fish-man-t]

well im sorry and i guess from now on i will do extenive research befor i answear any more questions!!!! and bang i did not mean to sound like a di## plz forgive

 

[cwgibson]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
The thing that needs to be understood about sand as it applies to marine aquaria is that the sand plays a key role in the water quality. Crushed Coral and Aragonite are all mostly calcium carbonate. This material slowly dissolves as it ages in the tank, buffering the water, driving up your akalinity, and keeping pH stable.
Play sand is not always the same type of stuff. Even if it was, you can't be sure of what is in it. It is manufactured for a different purpose, so no controls are in place to ensure the purity of the sand.
Furthermore, the size of the grain is important. Sand that is too fine can trap hydrogen sulfide and dead pockets within the sand bed, waiting to unleash a veritable death bomb when disturbed by a gravel cleaning, etc.
The buffering is the huge key though. You may be saving money up front, but the problems that you'll have with your pH is going to really make you wish you had spent the money. Again, even if you find sand that is calcium carbonate based, you have no way of knowing if there are various nasties left in the sand that could cause all sorts of problems.
i respect your opinion but how do we (aquarium keepers) know what anyone is putting in the sand we buy. im not disagreeing i am just wondering if there is a conservation program or something that makes this stuff.

 

[cwgibson]

Originally Posted by MichaelTX
there is no deffinate answer if you KNOW that the sand you are getting is Calcium carbonate then you are fine but most of what is packaged for playsand will have a mix of stuff in it that will cause you more headaches then its worth. TO me I will never buy anything not labeled for marine or aquarium use.
Mike
is there any way to "clean the playsand"?

 

[michaeltx]

I dont think so I rinsed and washed mine so many times in small batches and still ended up with trouble. There might be someway I jsut dont know of it.
Mike

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by fish-man-t
well im sorry and i guess from now on i will do extenive research befor i answear any more questions!!!! and bang i did not mean to sound like a di## plz forgive
You didn't in any way. What I posted is mostly just my opinion. i have done years of research on sandbeds though. Please, if you have an opinion and reasons for the opinion feel free to express them. We all learn that way. I especially like being stumped. It makes me do more research and learn more. This allows my opinion to be more accurate and therefore, more useful to the Board.
Thank you for your reply, I hope my opinion wan't too strong, it's just based on many years of research.

 

[cwgibson]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
You didn't in any way. What I posted is mostly just my opinion. i have done years of research on sandbeds though. Please, if you have an opinion and reasons for the opinion feel free to express them. We all learn that way. I especially like being stumped. It makes me do more research and learn more. This allows my opinion to be more accurate and therefore, more useful to the Board.
Thank you for your reply, I hope my opinion wan't too strong, it's just based on many years of research.
bang how about my question. how do we know what goes into the reef sand we buy?

 

[chipmaker]

There is no reason that they woudl put anythng in the packaged sand. What purpose would it serve. The way I look at it is if its rinsed well what more can you do. I tend to think there is mnore harmfull crap in wet bagged sand than in packaged dry playa sand, bacteria or no bacteria. I also find it unlikely in most cases for any bacteria to survive in the wet packed sand due to the way things are shipped and stored....its mainly a high priced joke yur paying for. May as well use play sand rinsed well at $3.50 a 50# bag and let it get seeded by a cup or two of real live sand from a friend or lfs tank and live rock.....I do find that there sure is a lot of paranoid folks that are skeptical of trying anything that is not in the books per se that likes to fiddle with marine tanks, and also that do not feel like its proper unless they spend a lot of money for whatever. A tank with a proper amount of live rock is stable and I just do not find having a sand bed especially if its a shallow sand bed to be of much im0ortance other than appearance, and even a deeper bed I have my doubts with as well. My belief and a lot of others is its the live rock thats the key ingredient. I run silica sand, my ph is 8.2 to 8.4 in my tanks...never yet had a ph crash or suffered from low ph and all I use is silica based sand. I do not get algae outbreaks of any type either, so IMHO all the hype about needing to have expensive high dollar aragonite sand is a bunch of yoou know what..about the same as never using locally collected salt water.
Fish-man-t
Yur right about masonary sand in general with it usually being super clean....and its predominately silica based, with sharp edges as it knits better into the mortar and blocks and brick etc. Some folks say it will hurt sand sifters mouths and gills etc, yet the GoM is full of all kinds of sand sifter critters and its predominately silica based sands......I know there is pure white masonary sand as its used to make white mortar for decroative stone etc, and I see no reason that would not be suuitable as would the typical browinsh color or yellowish color. IMHO Silcia based sand is cheaper and perfectly fine. I know a fellow who bought 20 pound bags of cigarette ashtray sand....you know that white sand they used to put in large ash trays before they started to use that black sand or kitty litter. It looked beautiful, and he only paid $2.90 a 20 pound bag of pure white uniform grain silica sand. It was on closeout at local janitorial supply and he happened to see it when going to pickup supplies one day for his cleaning company.....The price of sand was one big item that was holding him back from finishing up setting up his tank.

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by cwgibson
bang how about my question. how do we know what goes into the reef sand we buy?
Impurities show up fairly well in white sand. If it's bright white silica or aragonite it's probably fine. I recommend curing dry aragonite sand if it's going into an existing system. Silica can go straight in. If you have a microscope it's useful to look at individual grains. You want rounded edges, not sharp edges.

 

[nattybug33]

Well guys I consulted another forum and my LFS, they recommended pool filter sand. Its cheap, the same color as the sand as any east coast beach, the granules are perfect, it was very clean when I washed it, I bought it from Home depot for 5.68 for a 50lb bag. I'm going to try it out, and see how it does. It's suppose to be good because it doesn't trap food and pocket gases. We never know until we try, right? Wish me luck!

 

[buffett]

hey, nattybug33 let me know if it works out for ya and post some pics if you can, i live in nashville so im curious which lfs you talked to?
i am getting ready to set up my tank and i am looking for some cost effective ideas to save a lil money along the way, i am also considering making my own live rock so any info would be great.
and if its not too much trouble to let me know brand it is too please
thank you

 

[buffett]

bump, i want to find out which way i can go with this im getting ready to set my tank up so any info would be great

 

[aztec reef]

Originally Posted by Murph
IME if South Down/old castle brand play sand is used there should be no problems. Rinse thoroughly before use. The bags now have printing that states "not for aquarium use" but I suspect this is to cover themselves from any litigation. This brand is usually available at wal marts.
If the goal of all this sand is to provide a deep sand bed for nitrate conversion I would also suggest a combination of sand grades. I have experimented with a few different DSBs and have had good results with a mixture LFS aragonite and south down which is a vary fine grade of sand. About one third southdown and two thirds LFS aragonite. Four inch minimum depth.
As far as impurities go I suspect play sand has to meet more stringent standards than the aragonite you get from the LFS. These standards would include the possibility that small children are apt to roll around in it. Hence the name "play sand".
i agree. i have a couple of friends that use southdown with no problems at all.
that's what im using in my next tank.

 

[reefkprz]

one of the primary problems with play sand that contains silica is the levels of silicate leeching impurities like feldspar, 100%quartz sand is silicate free, and not cheap, one thing to keep in mind in this hobby going the cheap way usually results in disaster.
bang guy and myself had a huge debate over this topic and it took a while for us to realize we were both on the same page on this.
silicates can leech from cheap play sands, 100% quartz silica sand is safe, 100% calcium carbonate sand is safe, just think if you have 100pounds of sand at 98% purity thats about 2lbs of unidentified crap thats going into your tank. now please go ahead and tell me thats a good IDea

 

[purple lobster]

The Home Depots in NY have discontinued their play sand. I was able to find Quikrete play sand at Lowes. It does not have any info on ingredients. Anyone have any idea its any good? Its certainly not very white. Anyone know where I would be able to find Southdown or Old castle?

 

[bang guy]

If it's not pure white then don't use it.

 

[pete43]

Now I'm actually getting scared.I had used a playsand/aragonite mix(as per my lfs)with no problems for about ayear and a half.So should I vacuum out all the sand and replace it with all aragonite,or pool filtersand or what.Would vacuuming all the sand out be a disaster waiting to happen?I've seen a few reefs out there with no sand at all.

 

[bang guy]

If you're not having problems then I wouldn't change anything.
Pool filter sand is a bad choice, the grains are cracked and the sharp edges cause problems for worms and the other critters taking care of your sand bed.

 

[chub]

I was planning on using play sand and I bought a bag, then after reading up on everything about play sand I bought some argonite sand and I think it was the right move. I got a bag of Old Castle if someone is looking for 1 bag