Lowes play sand

reef fish · Jul 1, 2012

Lows play sand has anyone used it ?????)

Lateral72 · Jul 1, 2012

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-aquarium-discussion/90234-home-depot-sand.html#post987285

revhtree · Jul 1, 2012

Yea sorry, you should skip it.

nayrgaijin · Jul 1, 2012

+1
I also had a friend tell me it killed all his snails, he said it was like glass to them and as they went over and sifted it killed them. I took his word for it!

wysiwyg · Jul 2, 2012

the sand you get as play sand has silicate in it and is bad for your tank

Loki · Jul 2, 2012

I wouldn't use the play sand. They do have another type of stuff. It has a calcium base. I can't think of the name off of the top of my head. It is a 50lb bag and after rinsing you will get about 35lbs. It is $4

Lateral72 · Jul 2, 2012

Loki2902 said:
I wouldn't use the play sand. They do have another type of stuff. It has a calcium base. I can't think of the name off of the top of my head. It is a 50lb bag and after rinsing you will get about 35lbs. It is $4

Southdown?

I haven't seen that at a Home Depot/Lowes/etc. for many years..

In fact, I am 95% sure CaribSea repackages it and sells it for $15/30lbs

Loki · Jul 2, 2012

That may be it. Dang! No deals for the reefers

brian_reefragr · Jul 2, 2012

wysiwyg said:
the sand you get as play sand has silicate in it and is bad for your tank

1000% agreed! Do not use play sand, from anywhere.

gar732 · Jul 2, 2012

I used the southdown sand for a few years without issue since it's an argonite(I think) sand. However like was already mentioned it's difficult to find.

BarbH · Jul 2, 2012

I agree with what has been posted above I would skip using any play sands in a saltwater tank. I have heard the same thing about the Southdown sand which seems like it is very difficult to be able to find. For the money that you will invest in your fish and corals for your tank I would go with argonite sand.

impur · Jul 2, 2012

I ran a 75gal for 3-4 years with southdown sand, never had problem with it. I also ran a nano for several years with silica sand. It was great!! $8 for 40lbs of sand, can't beat that. The silica thing is a myth, yes it has silica no it won't hurt your tank.

jcharrsn · Jul 2, 2012

Myth or no myth. It all boils down to biology and making a risk reward determination. Silicates provide essential nutrients for algae growth and algae is extremely opprtunistic, and relentlessly reproductive. If you have a significant source of dissolved silicates (maybe from your sand) you could in fact be contributing to an algae bloom.

That being said, maybe the silicates in your bags of sand do not dissolve in your water because of the chemical nature of your water or the silicates in the sand are not particularly soluble to begin with(which may be the case where people have had positive experiences).

So you are left with a question. Do I take the chance of giving algae an AUCE buffet and save the money? or do I spend the 3-4X the money on the expensive sand and have the piece of mind that this is stuff that is intended for this use and won't cause me issues?

Its kind of like opening a two day old box of pizza that hasn't been refrigerated. You give it a sniff test. It passes, no funky smells. Do you eat the pizza? or do you buy another one because you don't want to risk the torture of food poisoning?

I would probably eat the pizza, but buy the expensive sand....

impur · Jul 2, 2012

See, but have you ever tried it? This myth gets spread around and around and just look at this thread already several people have spread it further and a lot of time this is from people who have never even tried it. Yes what you say makes sense, but is it fact? IMO I don't think that the silicates in the sand CAN be dissolved. What force is going to dissolve them? I know acids dissolve them, but that isn't going to happen in a reef tank. I know waves grind them down, but there are no waves in our tanks. There are silicates in the glass of our tanks. There are silicates in the silicon. There are silicates in the plastics of all the pumps. Randy Holmes-Farley DOSES silicates into his tank, doesn't appear to have any algae problems.

Got any of that pizza left?

cba191 · Jul 2, 2012

I'm new to this, and am still doing research before I purchase a tank, but this isn't an inexpensive hobby. Why are so many people trying to save a couple bucks on something like play sand or backyard rocks when those things make up such a small fraction of the total system price, but such a large portion of the filtration?
I'm not trying to be rude, but I just find it odd.

impur · Jul 2, 2012

You pretty much answered the question yourself. This isn't an inexpensive hobby, so naturally we try to save $$ everytime we can. When the cost of sand equals more than how much you paid for the tank itself, you start searching for other options. Especially when you can get something that works just as good for a fraction of the cost. And lucky for us, there are lots of options in this hobby

caudill187 · Jul 2, 2012

nayrgaijin said:
+1
I also had a friend tell me it killed all his snails, he said it was like glass to them and as they went over and sifted it killed them. I took his word for it!

That sounds terrible. Poor snails.

If you're on a budget, like me, Petsmart and Petco sell decent aragonite sand pretty cheap. I'd try petsmart first if you have it local to you. Sometimes they offer 30lbs of aragonite select size for about $20, I think.

cba191 · Jul 2, 2012

impur said:
You pretty much answered the question yourself. This isn't an inexpensive hobby, so naturally we try to save $$ everytime we can. When the cost of sand equals more than how much you paid for the tank itself, you start searching for other options. Especially when you can get something that works just as good for a fraction of the cost. And lucky for us, there are lots of options in this hobby

I guess I figure that because it's not a recurring expense, I feel that I can justify the cost because I want to make sure that I do it right the first time. If it's something that is easy to redo later, I'm more likely to experiment. But considering how difficult changing the rock and sand on the fly looks, I can't justify it. But that's just my opinion.