Novice question indeed!!!

[Strickland_673]

So, my freshwater tank has crashed, complete loss. I have no clue why.

now i have a 25g tank thats just sitting there, and i'm pretty sure it screamed "PUT SALT IN ME" yesterday, well thats what I told the girlfriend anyways.

But i have a question about sand.

Will any sand become "live" sand if you seed the tank with live rock. i have a bunch of dry base rock because my 60g saltwater had a blowout a year ago.

So can I use any sand? silica sand?
or does it have to be aragonite? can that be dry?

[MitchM]

Yes, any sand that you put in there will become "live" by virtue of bacteria that will colonize it.
Adding some live rock will contribute to the sand life somewhat. The dry rock won't, of course.
Silica sand can work fine if it is the proper size.

Mitch

[reefwars]

would become live but if youy know someone with a tank running id grab a few cups from them would help speed it up

[gobytron]

I'm pretty sure I've read in the past that Silica snad can leach lots of nasy stuff...like phosphates.

I'm not 100% on this but I'm sure someone here will chime in who is.

[MitchM]

There are a lot of myths with regards to using silica sand.
Here are a couple of articles/threads discussing/debunking some myths:

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/r_toonen9.html

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...03/feature.htm

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic79...ghlight=silica

Mitch

[daniella3d]

Don't use silica sand unless you want to have some major algae bloom! A lot of bad algae don't need much trace of this stuff to bloom. Also it is VERY VERY abrasive! I had some in my freshwater tank and just the fact that my frontosas were digging it near the glass was enough to scratch it all over. It was totaly ruined at the bottom because of that. This sand is very hard and will scratch the tank no doubt.

Use only good marine salt and if you use dead sand and dead rock, it will be best to put some live rock with it and it will take much longer that way to cycle and be fully cycled.

If you have a 60g saltwater tank then get some liverock from there and some sand to seed the new aquarium.

Originally Posted by Strickland_673

So, my freshwater tank has crashed, complete loss. I have no clue why.

now i have a 25g tank thats just sitting there, and i'm pretty sure it screamed "PUT SALT IN ME" yesterday, well thats what I told the girlfriend anyways.

But i have a question about sand.

Will any sand become "live" sand if you seed the tank with live rock. i have a bunch of dry base rock because my 60g saltwater had a blowout a year ago.

So can I use any sand? silica sand?
or does it have to be aragonite? can that be dry?

[MitchM]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Don't use silica sand unless you want to have some major algae bloom! ...

That is one of the myths.

Please read through the links I posted.
Soluble silica can come from many sources.

Mitch