Silica sand is fine in FW, but not a good idea in SW. It offers no buffering either in the substrate or to the water column. all those critter rely on aragonite based sand in captivity, or at least the finest coral sand - which I never see in the hobby trade.
Southdown is actually based on silica sand, but is loaded with fine shell fragments and actually buffers pretty well. My earliest light BW tanks were Soutdown based, but aragonite is more effective longer for me, so it is my choice now.
Will this sand be ok for SW tank?
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RTR
- Mentor
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Re: Will this sand be ok for SW tank?
Where's the fish? - Neptune
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goldielocke76
- Fahaka Puffer
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Re: Will this sand be ok for SW tank?
Pufferpunk wrote:I prefer sugar-sized.
=( now I wish I had thought to ask these kinds of questions before I set my tank up >< I had no idea. Now I wonder if I should get a bag of sand to put it in my tank to make it more fine grained.....wish I looked at this before I moved ><
5.5g: Pond snails
5.5g: Red Cherry Shrimp and Rams
10g: PZ the Pee Wee (DP), Ghost shrimp, Otos x3
36g: Luau the F8, Zebra nerites x8, sometimes a herd of ghost shrimp for food
60g: Perches the starry blenny, 1 watchman goby Snaps the l.c. hermit, 2 emerald crabs, 1 red crab, 2 turbos, 7 asteas, 2 nerites, 2 clown gobies and 2 firefish gobies (upgrading to a 90 gallon reef)
RIP Yoshi, you are dearly missed <3
5.5g: Red Cherry Shrimp and Rams
10g: PZ the Pee Wee (DP), Ghost shrimp, Otos x3
36g: Luau the F8, Zebra nerites x8, sometimes a herd of ghost shrimp for food
60g: Perches the starry blenny, 1 watchman goby Snaps the l.c. hermit, 2 emerald crabs, 1 red crab, 2 turbos, 7 asteas, 2 nerites, 2 clown gobies and 2 firefish gobies (upgrading to a 90 gallon reef)
RIP Yoshi, you are dearly missed <3