where to get sand from?

[angelfish]

thanks layton. was only going to have enough to just cover bottom of tank, max 2cm in any place. will have to go for the 2-4mm coral sand. just thought there might have been something whiter out there. i gravel clean the tank at work whenever i do a water change (every week/ every second week) and i would do the same with this tank.

thanks for all your answers. its good to learn from people with soooo much knowledge. thanks again

[Bruce]

Jebo Tanks as Marine, there is a (Should Be) warning inside the cover

If you are using the tank with SW then you must add a glass cover.

This helps stop lights getting rusty I gather

Cheers

/Bruce

[angelfish]

thanks bruce. i forgot about the metal clips that hold the light cover on. will just go for a normal glass tank i think. trouble is my partner will notice a new tank, where as if i just used the jebo, he wouldnt notice if the fish changed from angels to clowns!!! :lol: i'll just have to do some rearranging of tanks to fit another one in.

[deeveus]

I personally thought the subsrat looked ok. I never looked closely at the substrat but mine has tiny shells in it. However can't you just use normal old sand from the beach?

[angelfish]

i think sand from the beach can be contaminated and isnt worth the risk. thats the sort of sand i wanted though, the coral sand (with the little shells etc) looks a bit to lumpy.

[chimera]

as i mentioned previous, i've got a fine sand in my fuge. supposedly crushed coral but im not so sure. it certainly isnt the same sort of sand you get at the beach, but it is a breeding ground for algae. so much so i think i'll ditch it all and replace with the same stuff in my main tank.

[angelfish]

thanks chimera. i might give up on the fine sand i think, too many bad stories about it.

[Pies]

I am using a mixture of sand in my refugium, find 'silt' coral sand, 2-4mm coral sand, 4-10mm and rock rubble. 'Grunge bed' for the refugium is the ultimate.

Pies

[Wok]

What about using silica sand?

If you are prepared to drive north there is a very white sandy silica beach up north where ACI used to get the sand for their bottles.

I think the beach is up around Monganui area.

[chimera]

silicates are bad

im sure i've read the best bet for fuge is coarse sand at bottom, say 1" - 1.5" thick then fine sand on top say 1/2" - 1" thick. does this right? if i add a coarser sand to my fuge, is it ok to stir it all up into one big mash?

[lduncan]

silicates are bad

im sure i've read the best bet for fuge is coarse sand at bottom, say 1" - 1.5" thick then fine sand on top say 1/2" - 1" thick. does this right? if i add a coarser sand to my fuge, is it ok to stir it all up into one big mash?

Other way round, fine on the bottom coarse on the top. And what's silicates got to do with silica?

Silica sand is not silicate, and it is not bad at all. It's another one of those myths. Having said that i would never put a fine silica sand in a display. Blows around too much and even at only an inch or so, can easily create the DSB effect, good for nitrate, but a phosphorus time bomb.

Layton

[Pies]

What Layton said. Fine sand on the bottom, corse on top. Time will do this anyway, the bigger bits work their way to the surface.

I wouldn't be to paranoid about the DSB effect. DSB are good*

Pies

*and bad.

[chimera]

fine on the bottom coarse on the top

ooops, yeah other way around!

And what's silicates got to do with silica

what is the difference? i thought silicates came from silica based sand? i think i have silicates in my water as i have a bit of brown algae growth. does anyone use a silicate absorbing resin? or is phosphate control sufficient to minimise this form of algae?

[Pies]

Silica in silica sand is bound and cannot leech back into the water stream (without the addition of for example excessive c02).

Something I have read is that the problem with silicate sand in aquairum is that its not very porus (sp?) and little bacterria can grown on it. So as a biological media its a poor addition. Not saying its true, but have read it several times. Often warned against it if your using a UGF.

Piez

[lduncan]

The good thing about silica sand if used in a dsb is that it creates an oxygen gradient in a smaller depth than say coral sand does.

So it can create differing environments for the differing bacteria you want to do particular jobs, without having to have 6" + of sand.

This has nothing to do with the composition of the sand, it's the grain size which matters. However silica sand is almost always much finer than coral sand.

[angelfish]

this is quite interesting, im learning alot! one question, why do dsb's create phosphates?

[lduncan]

They store phosphorous.

Nitrate on the other hand they can process to nitrogen gas which is exported from the system as a gas bubble

Most (naturally occurring) phosphorous compounds are not gaseous at room temperature so all the dsb can do is absorb and store it, it can't export it entirely from the system. Once the bed becomes saturated, phosphate is released, which can be catastrophic in some circumstances.

[angelfish]

thanks for clearing that up for me layton now, how do the people with dsb's get rid of the excess phosphorus? and in setups like my one at work (with a dsb in the fuge/sump) will i get high levels of phosphorus?