SO! in my beginnings, I read more stuff than I ever thought I would. In my research I found that aragonite sand is what you are "supposed" to be using. At the same time I read that it is beneficial to dose silica, as it is used by alot of organisms. Well that made me think...with all the hype about NOT using Silica sand, I came to the conclusion that people with Diatom Problems just dont have the proper clean up Crew.
Well, I took matters into my own hands as a C+ chemistry student. I went ahead and made the choice of setting up an 8 inch sand bed of Ace Hardware White Play sand. It is Extremely fine grade and very appealing. During the cycle I had a Diatom bloom that was 10x what it was on my Aragonite sand. However, after the bloom, it was perfectly white. This is because the first fish I added were Mollies, along with Turbos, Nassarius, and the various hermits and urchins. Since the sand went white, it has stayed white, and every diatom that starts gets immediately eaten.
I do not have a silica test kit, but every other level I test is perfect. I have had the silica sand set up for over a year and the fish love it. Conchs burry themselves down to the bottom, the eel I had and the yellow wrasse loved it! The only downside I have had was that the fine grade sand when mixed with powerhead loosing its suction cup makes for a very cloudy day. haha.
I have heard of previous success with this sand, so I am just adding to the De-Bunking of the Silica sand Myth. It is not for everyone, but i will always use it when the bed calls for white.
If anyone has experiences like this with means to test for silicates, I would be very curious to compare levels with that of a tank that gets dosed. Other than that, this is my way of adding a natural food that also will clean my water, and the finer the sand, the better my results have been. My sump is a 55 with 8 inches of sand, Mangroves, and chaetomorpha. A skimmer is used on weekends, but not really as necessary with all the nutrient export I get from my Fuge. I have not had yellow water from the trees yet, but its been less than a month since I added them.
I am not saying that aragonite does not have a place, but you dont necessarily have to buy it when silica sand is just fine. I would NEVER recommend pool filter sand based on aesthetics. My friend got some and HOLY CRAP did it look bad. It was like particles of glass rather than the fine sand That looks amazing.
However, if you do Aragocrete, you MUST use Aragonite. Otherwise it would be Silacrete, and turn brown.
A good thing to do if you want to reduce the diatom bloom is to rinse the sand in hose water, then store it in some ro water for about a week with a plant light, it will make a pretty quick thick bloom and then you hose it again. I noticed that the bloom was cut in half when I did this.
Well, I took matters into my own hands as a C+ chemistry student. I went ahead and made the choice of setting up an 8 inch sand bed of Ace Hardware White Play sand. It is Extremely fine grade and very appealing. During the cycle I had a Diatom bloom that was 10x what it was on my Aragonite sand. However, after the bloom, it was perfectly white. This is because the first fish I added were Mollies, along with Turbos, Nassarius, and the various hermits and urchins. Since the sand went white, it has stayed white, and every diatom that starts gets immediately eaten.
I do not have a silica test kit, but every other level I test is perfect. I have had the silica sand set up for over a year and the fish love it. Conchs burry themselves down to the bottom, the eel I had and the yellow wrasse loved it! The only downside I have had was that the fine grade sand when mixed with powerhead loosing its suction cup makes for a very cloudy day. haha.
I have heard of previous success with this sand, so I am just adding to the De-Bunking of the Silica sand Myth. It is not for everyone, but i will always use it when the bed calls for white.
If anyone has experiences like this with means to test for silicates, I would be very curious to compare levels with that of a tank that gets dosed. Other than that, this is my way of adding a natural food that also will clean my water, and the finer the sand, the better my results have been. My sump is a 55 with 8 inches of sand, Mangroves, and chaetomorpha. A skimmer is used on weekends, but not really as necessary with all the nutrient export I get from my Fuge. I have not had yellow water from the trees yet, but its been less than a month since I added them.
I am not saying that aragonite does not have a place, but you dont necessarily have to buy it when silica sand is just fine. I would NEVER recommend pool filter sand based on aesthetics. My friend got some and HOLY CRAP did it look bad. It was like particles of glass rather than the fine sand That looks amazing.
However, if you do Aragocrete, you MUST use Aragonite. Otherwise it would be Silacrete, and turn brown.
A good thing to do if you want to reduce the diatom bloom is to rinse the sand in hose water, then store it in some ro water for about a week with a plant light, it will make a pretty quick thick bloom and then you hose it again. I noticed that the bloom was cut in half when I did this.
. It looks horrid right now, I split it all off into different tanks w/ no order and all the sand is in one tank...I'm basically bringing it all back to temp and designing the new setup.
