Pulverized limestone Please weight in!

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cervezamoney

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I've got my 70 gallon going with 70+lbs live rock, and water circulating, I planned on using pulverized limestone mixed with the live sand from my 29 gallon(approx 3in bed in the 29) for substrate. Suggestions, criticism
 
I used it in my tank. My tank has only been up a few months but I haven't seen any problems using it. I have 2 conchs and some Nassarius snails living in the sand and they are doing great (in fact the conchs have laid eggs). The only thing I did was put some in a bucket and use a hose to rinse it first. The first batch of rinse water looks kind of nasty and I don't think you would want it in your tank so I would definitely recommend rinsing it. It also will contain some very fine particles which you can keep or rinse off depending on the amount of rinsing you do.
 
Both my son and I have used it in our tanks and it works fine. It does take a lot of rinsing. But for the price it is a good deal. Just be ready to spend about 30 min. per bag. :D
 
Rinse, rinse, rise, and rinse again. Then rinse some more. I've got it in my fuge, and things are doing great with it.
 
As has been stated, rinse the heck out of it, and then just accept that it's gonna be cloudy for a while anyway...

But, I've had it in my 55 gallon refuguim for quite some time now, no complaints, I'd use it again...
 
I was planning on using it in my main tank, then maybe in a month or so start on a 29 gallon display refugium with miracle mud.
 
@cervezamoney wrote:
in a month or so start on a 29 gallon display refugium with miracle mud. said:
I'm afraid to say anything for fear of starting a holy war, but IMHO miracle mud is no miracle... It's no better than the pulverized limestone, and many hundreds of times more expensive...

(The Miracle Mud isn't BAD, it's just not any better, IMHO, than other substrates that cost many orders of magnitude less)
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@Serk wrote:
[I]@cervezamoney wrote:[/I][quote="in a month or so start on a 29 gallon display refugium with miracle mud. said:
I'm afraid to say anything for fear of starting a holy war, but IMHO miracle mud is no miracle... It's no better than the pulverized limestone, and many hundreds of times more expensive...

(The Miracle Mud isn't BAD, it's just not any better, IMHO, than other substrates that cost many orders of magnitude less)"]

What do you recommend? I'm fishing for ideas here. All info is helpful!
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My opinion would be the pulverized limestone... A lot of it (6-9 inches deep) in a refuguim...

Of course, in this hobby as in life, never take one person's opinion as gospel... And that includes me! :) The pulverized limestone is just what I've used, and it's worked quite well for me. If I were setting up a new system tomorrow, I'd use the pulverized limestone for the display and the refugia...
 
My .02
I used it also in the old 58G, good stuff no complaints other than having to rinse the heck out of it. I also tried miracle mud in my last refugium, but due to the fact that you have to replace 50% of it every 18 months or so has lead me to believe it's nothing special and is just "mud" with additives incorporated....I chose not to further that cause.

Cheers,
 
Stupid question here but Who in the metroplex has pulverized Limestone?
I know Home depot was "supposed" to have it but I've yet to see it.
 
I think I have about 300 lbs in my main display which I spent about 5-10 minutes rinsing per bag. The cloudiness cleared within a few hours after adding the sand. I also have about 400 lbs of it in a remote deep sand bed that I did not rinse at all. It went straight from the bag to the RDSB.

If you can handle cloudiness for a little longer it is really best to not rinse calcerous or aragonite sand at all. The finer particles will more readily disolve and help with the sands buffering ability. The finer sand will tend to settle towards the bottom also, so you shouldn't have problems with sand storms later. Patience is key here, as it is in all aspects of this hobby. As I stated earlier, I barely rinsed my display sand and have never had any problems for over a year now. In the future I will not rinse my sand at all, display or otherwise.

I definately recommend the Pulverised Limestone unless you have a bunch of money to spend on aragonite sand. The Pulverised Limestone is fairly white, but the Aragonite is whiter and is much better for buffering. Limestone has a very low affect on buffering.

Here is a link to my tank thread. If you look on pages 3 and 4 you can see what the Pulverised Limestone looks like new and about 1 year old.

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=23033&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
 
Only thing I would add is if you go deep, go deep and not 3". 3" isn't going to do much for you, whereas if you go 5" you'll get the DSB benefit. Otherwise just go 1 or 2" max. Anything more is just a nitrate sink until you hit 5" or so.


As far as limestone itself, it'll work just fine and as the others have mentioned, rinse.

If you have the equipment, you could pre-soak it in saltwater and add a few cups of your existing sand to populate the bacteria. Do this is a tub or garbage can with a heater and little powerhead for about a week. This will drastically reduce your clouding and shorten the settle time for the sand when you put it into the system.
 
Thanks every one for your help. I used the aragonite sand from my 29 gallon on the floor to seed the sand bed, then spred the Limestone over the top. Looks great (IMO) Its not as white as the sugar looking sand I wanted, but at $5 per 50lbs? I'll take it. I did spend some time rinsing before ToddLaCo posted, but I think I'll try not rinsing when I start the refrugium.
I've takin pictures most of the way, so I'll try to start a build thread, not that my little 70gallon is all that. It's good enough for a poorboy.

Hey Firewolf4 I found it at Denton HomeDepot in lawn & garden outside. Don't bother calling, they said they didn't have it or never heard of it, but I looked for myself, and found it quickly.

I was a little scared of it when I rinsed it. it looked like grey cement until I tested it in the old tank first.
 
It is a good idea to watch the color of the sand before adding it. I used a total of 14 bags, and 1 or 2 were gray. If you look at the pictures in my thread you will notice some gray in the lower portion of the sand to the left of the tank. Luckily they ended up on the bottom out of sight.

I am sure I will start some controversy with my "don't rinse" comment, so I want to add a link to a thread with a quote from Anthony Calfo regarding not rinsing sand. Read the 8th post from Anthony spefically.

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic59884-13-1.aspx?Highlight=rinsing+sand
 
The only thing I'd worry about is this..

@Anthony Calfo wrote:
(presuming you've seen the assay or otherwise believe it to be free of contaminants said:
When I rinsed my pavestone, I found a 'scum' a the top of the rinsing container; it was like dirt / mud.
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Your right Scott, that it would be best to err on the side of safety. I didn't rinse the 400 lbs in my RDSB and had no problems, but that is only one instance and not enough to base it on.

If you do rinse, I would personally recommend a very light rinsing to maintain as much of the beneficial small particles as possible.
 
@ToddLaCo wrote:
Your right Scott said:
What about the water your rinsing with ? If it's out of the hose aren't we adding phosphates and chlorine and everything else to the sand/limestone whatever it may be ?
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