Is using play sand really safe to use?

[staylor1490]

I currently have a lot of play sand that I used for freshwater aquariums with no problems. Can I add it to my reef tank? I currently have a three gallon tank with mushrooms and zoas with a lot of live rock, which I assume will populate the sand with beneficial bacteria. My concern is whether or not the sand will release silicates and cause a cyano bloom - I've read conflicting opinions on this. Any thoughts?

 

[lion king]

Yes alot of silica

 

[Gtinnel]

I would strongly reccomend not using play sand in a reef tank. Plus with the size of your aquarium being so small the cost of proper sand is insignificant.

 

[Joekr73]

A few years ago a friend of mine did this. He used play sand and had nothing but problems because of all the silica and ended up tearing the whole tank down to start over. My advice, don't do it. It's not worth it.

 

[outhouse]

PASS not a good idea

 

[polyppal]

Sounds like a diatom buffet

just go with the cheap Caribsea from petco

 

[Water Dog]

Many years ago, we used a brand called “Southdown“ play sand, wich was 100% pure aragonite sand. It was very fine, a good attribute during the DSB (deep sand bed) craze. At $4 for a 50# bag, it was a steal and readily available at Home Depot. Unfortunately, Southdown play sand is no longer available. Most play sand available now is silica based sand, which is less than ideal for reef tank use.

 

[dmsc2fs]

Sounds like a diatom buffet

just go with the cheap Caribsea from petco

Caribsea is $19.99 for a 40lb bag at petsmart right now. Free shipping if you join the pals club.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/deal-on-caribsea-life-rock-and-caribsea-sand.884560/#post-9774605

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Many years ago, we used a brand called “Southdown“ play sand, wich was 100% pure aragonite sand. It was very fine, a good attribute during the DSB (deep sand bed) craze. At $4 for a 50# bag, it was a steal and readily available at Home Depot. Unfortunately, Southdown play sand is no longer available. Most play sand available now is silica based sand, which is less than ideal for reef tank use.

The good old days. I used that from Home Depot for my first set up.

 

[Lasse]

Silica and reef aquarium is an interesting subject- Many aquarists put in a lot of money in order to get a RODI that its 0 in silica in fear for both heaven and hell. The ugly truth revalved by more use of IPC have shown that most aquarium have a Si concentration between 100 and 300 µg/L without any problem at all. I see warnings everywhere about the hell that´s come with high Si concentrations but very few figures backing it up.

Between 14/10 2016 to 23/1 2018 was my Si concentrations from high to very, very, very high. See the figure below. Yes it is right it was 20 000 µg/L in january 2018 !!!

​

Did my aquarium look like doomsday during this time? Between 0.47 and 1.41 in this video - you can see with your own eyes how bad things this skyrocket concentrations did to my aquarium - and after that - how good it become when I got down to around 200 µg/L ...........................




Do you not see any differences - neither did I during this time

I´m, not saying that you should have high concentrations of Si - I prefer around 2 - 300 µg (and that´s do my sponges too and snails too) - what I´m trying to say is that here is an example where the concentrations did not play ant important roll. The only backlash I got was that Si precipitated on the glass when it was at its highest concentrations.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Midrats]

Silicate is the only thing that shows up in my RO water. I don't even bother with DI anymore as I have high CO2 and it's waste of money. I notice no difference in the tank. I think @Randy Holmes-Farley used to dose it if I'm not mistaken.

 

[jda]

I never found the silica from play sand to be an issue if rinsed well, but you lack the porous aragonite structure for bacteria growth, will not be able to buffer at all (which might come in handy with a small tank) and there is no phosphate buffering.

While I would not recommend silica sand to most, high silica readings in the water is not the reason why...