Home depot sand? REVISED!!!!!

S

srkr1432

I was told that i can use Home depot sand for a fish/reef tank? What kind...play sand? Or blasting sand? Very curious....
 
Pulverized limestone. 50 pound bags in the gardening section. Make sure to check the sand before you buy it as HD has recently switched brands. Some stores carry limestone that is too finely pulverized for use in aquariums. It should look and feel like slightly finer play sand. I think the desirable brand is Yardright but I may be wrong.
 
The product is called "Pavestone"

I used around 130 pounds or so in my 55g refuguim, to get a 6-9 inch deep sand bed:

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=16435

We have some other threads with pictures of the bags and far more info, but unfortunately the search function is still broken so I'm not having any luck finding those... :cry:
 
Oh yeah, almost forgot...

It should be rinsed, rinsed, and then rinsed some more.

When added to a tank, the tank will turn to chocolate milk for a few days. You can see some pics of my refuguim after I added it in the thread I linked to above...
 
For denitrification, some recommend a minimum of 6 inches.

One more vote for pavestone. I have ~100 lbs in my refugium and another 100 in my corner tank.
 
Ok so on my current tank 60 reef that I have had set up for over a year, it only has a 2-3 inch bed and I can't seem to get my nitrates down below 40 is that the problem? Should I add sand all around my existing live rock? wont the cloud of silt kill my other fish and corals. Wow You learn something every day. I'm all ears....
 
That's a tough one...

Your current sand bed, is it crushed coral, medium sized, or sand (sugar sized)? If it's bigger grains, like crushed coral, then it's definitely NOT doing you any favors in the nitrate department... If it's crushed coral, I'd highly recommend removing it before moving on to something else.

Deep sand beds are somewhat controversial in some circles, but I completely swear by them from my personal experiences.

Adding a deep sand bed to a live running tank can be a bit tricky. There are several methods that can be used, but I'd recommend having some filter socks on hand anyway... Some paper towels laid inside of a filter sock is great at removing the fine silt that can get kicked up adding sand (Thank you Ashlar...)

The method I would use (And plan on doing soon, I think I need to add some sand to my tanks) would be to first rinse the sand as well as possible, then get a few feet of 2" or greater PVC. Stick the PVC into the tank down near the bottom, and slowly pour sand into the pipe. I'd do it a little at a time (As in spread out over days), never completely covering the current sand bed, to give any critters in the sand bed now time to migrate up into the new sand.

This would be just one method, hopefully others will come along with some additional methods for you to choose from as well...
 
Shane, there are a couple of reasons why nitrates might be persistent.

- Overfeeding (how much? how often? what denitrification ability you have can't catch up)
- lack of nitrate export (do you have a refugium? how often / how much water do you change?)
- high bioload (what size tank, how much LR, and how many fish?)

There was a recent thread about adding more sand to an existing tank. In short, you can't add a lot at one time, and it should be well rinsed.
 
I have 300 lbs of the pulverized limestone in my system. I have about 3" in main and 6" in the refuge. I like having a DSB, but shy away from it in my main just in case something digs it up or I have to move some rocks, etc., I just don't want to chance releasing anaerobic bacteria.

I got a big plastic storage container and washed half a bag at a time. Hosed it down real good and let the fines suspend in the water and dumped the water out letting the heavier particles settle and stay in the plastic container. Did this 3 to 4 times or until the suspended mater and fines were fairly clear. Other then the first day I have not had a problem with the tank getting cloudy, and even that was minimal.

It takes some time but definitely worth it in my opinion.

I am contemplating building in another DSB, probably around 10” deep into my system. I don’t have any problem with nitrates in my system, but I do like the idea of having an established DSB in the system for purification. Another thing I am considering with using a DSB is replacing it every couple years, another reason I want mine isolated.
 
Ok I went to Home Depot and bought Pavestone Pool Filter Sand. Is that ok...They had pavestone playsand but this is a little finer without the bigger rocks in it. 4.59 a bag. Waiting for a response before I start rinsing. Ohyea i saw the pulverized limestone but it was like a powder...kinda worried me so I went with the pool sand....Anxiously waiting...
 
Not 100% sure on the pool filter sand, but I believe it's silica based. If that's the case, many say that it's fine to use, it just doesn't have the buffering ability that limestone or aragonite do.
 
I posted in the other thread too, but:

Okay, finally tracked down the thread with the pictures of the correct stuff (Ugh, I can't wait 'till we get our search function fixed!!!)

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=15394


I'm pretty sure the pool sand is NOT the correct stuff...
 
*nod* That's the only problem with the pavestone stuff.. it has a LOT of fine particulate. You'll probably lose 10-20% in the rinsing process.
 
Ok 150 lbs and 4.5 hours later the gravel is washed. It really came out about 100-120-lbs by the time you wash it like stated above. Water is milky but it will settle I hope :wink: . Thanks now I'm gonna do this to my current reef slowly but next week my back and hands are killing me..
 
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