A dip into the local knowledge pool

[IceTurf]

sigh... anyone know if silica causes algae blooms?

[mr_alberta]

Do a search on the board and you'll find a lot of info.

[IceTurf]

hmm well aparently many types of algea and small organisms like that have/are made up of a large amount of silica

[Pier Pressure]

Target play sand is what you need. I have it in my freshwater tank and it is great. The cloudiness in our 150 gallon tall only lasted a couple of hours after adding everything. I think you get it at Home Depot at around $5 per bag.

[IceTurf]

well other then fw is dif then sw ok,

[howdy20012002]

thanks Pier Pressure.
I was trying to remember the type of sand I used.
target play sand from home depot is what I have used in lots of tanks and I haven't noticed any difference at all between those tanks and the other ones that have the agrimix sand.
Neal

[IceTurf]

ok tks guys, it'll save me a bunch of $ (:do u guys find that if you have a skimmer rated for a larger tank that you don't have to do water changes as often?

[Pier Pressure]

Very welcome, Howdy20012002.

I am not sure if this is the same concept but we over-filtered our 150 gallon freshwater tank with two Rena XP3's and one of those new Fluval F4s or whatever they are called. We have a fairly large bioload and are still doing the water changes once a week, the concept being why take a chance?

Who wants to watch their livestock go south if the concept is wrong? We just decided we did not want to take the chance, especially on that size of tank.

[Matt]

Almost all commercial sand is silicate. Silicates grow diatoms. Diatoms are ugly. Therefore, don't use silicate sand in a reef aquarium. I'd also worry about what else was in "commercial grade" sandbox sand. Tons of things that wouldn't worry a kid will be bad for a reef.

[IceTurf]

its not like i'm just dumping in the sand, i'll rinse it out, plus if there is a problem my filter should be able to take care of it