These are my sand choices? Also ? on layering.

[lilcheen]

the whole sand stuff is geting me frustrated. I have a 180, and im doing reef. I dont really care much for a DSB, i looking for a 2inch.
I already have the follwing bags.
1 40 lbs CaribSea
2 20lbs bags of Argralive
80 lbs total so far. Looking for like 160 ish
I have the choice of the folloing.
Play Sand from lowes. (choiec of all three) Medium, Comm. and Play
Caribsea Agronite 40lbs bags for 34.99
More Argralive for 34.99 20lbs bags.
and my lfs has these unmarked bags of said thats really really white for 50pbs for 50lbs. Question is.
Live said does not come in white, i could do the whtie stuff and seed it with the brownish live sand.. But that wont look good.
Im trying to get a decent bed with live sand, as white as possible. how should i do this, can i layer sand? as long as i have live on top?
Can i Mix?
also, southdown was a no go. None in a 2 hours driving radius

 

[crazy8]

I think if you look, you shouldn't touch anything other than the playsand (at least from the hardware store). Because it is filtered and the grain size is small. I think if you get into the other grades you will find out that you have to rinse these and it will be more work than you want.
I would go with the color you like best of the arogonite sands and yes you can layer. Only the top layer is going to be live anyway.

 

[lilcheen]

How white is the qickcrete play sand?
If its decent, could i....
small later of playsand, then my Carib sea agronite,and then my live sand on top?

 

[crazy8]

I think quikcrete is very dark compared to most playsands.
I didn't like it. I actually couldn't find southdown either so I ended up going to a local nursery around town and found some playsand in 50lb bags that looked nice. Only problem with mine is that it is silica based and many people will tell you that is bad.
I think next time I will spend the extra time/money to find aragonite based for 1 reason -- I am having trouble keeping my ph up. The aragonite sand is supposed to be a great buffer for that.
email me at mikersp8@hotmail.com and I will tell you of 1 other option on the net.

 

[birdy]

If you are already using some aragonite, I would just keep using it, you will have a hard time finding any playsand that is as white as the aragonite and the live sand (the bagged ls really isn't worth the money, you want LS with all the worms and good detritus eating critters).

 

[lilcheen]

where do i find the good live sand?
Also. I not really uSIg hte sand yet.
My tank is empty. No water. No sand.
Im trrying to save a little money b.c i dont want to buy 180 pounds of caribsea.. I have the 3 bags that i do (1 carib sea, 2 agralive) b.c i got a steal from a friend who was going to set up a new 55 and decided to use figi pink the the entire tank.

 

[crazy8]

You don't have to have "live sand" at all to set up your tank. If anything, a cupful from a friend or the store would seed your tank. And if you are going to use LR, then that too would seed your sand. Will just take longer. My tank took longer to cycle than most probably because I didn't use any LS at all. I bought 90 lbs of LR for a 55 gal tank and all the sand was bought locally at $4 or so for a 50 lb bag. I used 100 lbs and I am happy with it. Mine is darker than the "white" sand I have seen in some tanks, but I do feel it looks more natural. I have seen some tanks that the sand is VERY white in and I just didn't love the look.

 

[karajay]

Just wondering....my lfs has small bags of colored sand (like red, blue, green...) that are supposed to be marine sand according to the bag. Anybody ever seen or used this stuff?

 

[jerseysaltwater]

I was able to get live aragonite reef sand for $22 for a 20 lb bag - i bought 2 bags, with shipping, was maybe $50. email me at EdShaw63@yahoo.com for the website. I saw the same bags in ***** for almost double the price - $40 for a single bag.

 

[chuckularone]

Originally posted by Crazy8
I think quikcrete is very dark compared to most playsands.

It is. It's very dark. It is what I used, because of the grain size. I'm planning to keep Jawfish and I needed something that they could burrow in.
And I like the natural look of it.