Play sand

[tyler1503]

I use silica based sand (beach sand) in all my tanks except the 5 gal which has crushed coral sand designed to be used in reef tanks.
Do I have a little algae here and there? Yes. Do I blame the sand? No. I blame over feeding, bad light tubes and lack of water changes, although that's another story for another day.
I've had worse algae problems in the crushed coral sand tank than any of the silica sand tanks.
Properly washed silica sand can be successfully used. I'd be willing to bet 99% of people who are against silica sand haven't even used it before and are just recycling information someone else told them. Not aiming that at anyone in particular by the way.
I'll sit back and let all the aragonite fans tear me a new one now

 

[acidtablockshifty]

the benefit of sand made out of crushed coral is plain surface area for beneficial bacteria, pretty much all it comes down to, in a smaller tank with not a lot of rock, it probably helps and may help a lot. I went with q-rock its a quartz type sand used for adding texture to ceilings, and i feel the same way i could never point at my sand and be like that's the problem. There are far to many others things that were definitely more of an issue, i will say im adding crushed coral sand on top and mixing in it because, the silica sand looks like oatmeal