mixing sands question

[wrassecal]

Can you mix quartz and aragonite? I need more dry sand for the dsb in the new 135 and I can't get southdown or any arongonite that is cheap here. I have southdown in my 55 gal and I was wondering if anyone has any experience mixing them.

 

[salty rick]

I know that some on this board has used quartz as a base then put live agronite on top with great success.

 

[wrassecal]

Thanks Salty, but I mean really mixing them. Let's say if I can salvage my 200 lbs of southdown (minus the top layer) and I mix it with 200 more pounds of quartz. Then put my top layer of live sand back on top.

 

[salty rick]

I know people have done both but I don't know what the results were. I don't think it would really matter one way or the other.

 

[nm reef]

For whatever its worth I've mixed Quickcrete sand with Caribsea aragonite sands in my refugium with absolutely no noticable problems....some of the mixture has been in place for over a year now and it seems to function fine. The appearence is different than the combination of Natures Ocean LS & Caribsea aragonite used in the display...but they appear to function the same. I plan to use a combination of Caribsea products and Natures Ocean to build/establish the DSB for my future tank expansion...myself I'd simply prefer not to use anything but quality aragonite based sands for the display.

 

[wrassecal]

Thanks NMReef and I'm taking donations Too bad we can't use beach sand. Hubby is in Destin Florida right now and that's some pretty sand down there.

 

[bterry29]

I've been wondering about adding sand to the aragonite I have in my 58. I'd like to add a finer grain white sand. Any suggestions on how to add this to an existing tank w/o stirring up too much? Will this cause another cycle? Thanks.

 

[jonthefb]

im not a big fan of the look of the sillica sand, but i imagine it could be done.
as far as adding sand, just realize that if you add a finer sand to a coarser sand, the finer will always settle to the bottom...but you can definately add stuff, but make sure to do it very slowly. add liek a pound of sand a bit at a time for a week., untill you get the desired look you want!
good luck
jon

 

[wrassecal]

It's not going in there unless it's white and fine I guess I'll have to be one of those people just slowly building up the sand bed and go ahead and use the expensive arogonite. Those close up pics of the quartz sand on another thread gave me the creeps I orderd my hazmat suit today and have activated carbon on hand....people think I'm paranoid about the high alert...I just tell them no, I'm just going to try to clean the sand from my dsb and the carbons for my tank, oh yeah and all that special water I buy, it's for the aquarium too. And geez a person can't have enough duct tape and plastic on hand

 

[barracuda]

My DSB is made of 165 lbs of fine quartz sand as a lower layer and 140 lbs of Nature's Ocean live aragonite sand on top of it. I have it for about a year now. 0 nitrates, visible pods and worms population.

 

[wrassecal]

Barracuda - thanks and I love your tank ( might have mentiond that at time or two on other threads)

 

[barracuda]

Thanks Wrassecal, but this is my old set up that you probably have seen on my web site. Also, thank you for reminding me, that i have to update my web site!!!

 

[wrassecal]

Well then where's the new setup? I liked the other one a lot. Did it have the quartz sand?

 

[barracuda]

New set up is just the old sand, old rocks, but.... different house and different tank.

 

[barracuda]

one more