Reef Substrate Questions

[RyanG]

So my tank is progressing a lot faster than I imagined due to stumbling into some decent deals and being patient. Im going to need a substrate soon! So what size type and vendor for live sand should I use? Do I need to get all of the sand live? I really hope not as Im planning on doing 3-4 inch sand bed. What brands of non-live are good and reef safe. Ive heard of a couple such as Highplains Dessert Play Sand. Does anyone else know of any other calcite or argonite plain jane sand?

Off Topic just a little bit. If I use regular flourescent shop lights over my tank until I get my halides will it kill the coraline that is growing on my live rock? They are under PCs now.

 

[dustin_P74]

um so can go to the depot and buy regular play sand and use it but i would rinse it really well first and i should seed for the live rock. but i would buy a couple bags of live sand also. and i have coraline growing well under my pcs so dont worry about that

 

[daugherty]

i would not trust using play sand myself would use aragramax sand and get 20 or 30 pounds of garf grunge. dont buy the baged live sand all it is as some bacteria and dand that they charge more for. if you get live sand get the real thing.

 

[fatman]

Where is the Highplains Desert Plains Sand from? If it is Great Salt Lake sand then it is almost as good as Aragonite sands available from Tropical fish stores (which all come from one source in Bahama). Great Salt Lakes sand does have a little more silica, but not bad levels. Also you will not get to be as selective as to the particle size. Great Salt Lakes sand will mostly respond just like aragonite, in that in a deep sand bed it will dissolve at the lower levels of the bed supplying trace elements and calcium. Fine sand between 0.5 mm and 1 mm works best in a sand bed if you are looking for denitrification as well as nitrification. If you can obtain even a spoon full of it, it would be well worth it for you to add just a little hydrochloric acid (Muriatic Acid) to the sand. If it is calcium based it will start fizzing like Alka Seltzer, after it starts fizzing add a little more until it stops dissolving. What is still in the container your using will be excess acid (liquid) and the materials other than the calcium based materials (solids), typically silica.
I would recommend around one pound of GARF Grunge for every 20 pounds of dead sand for bacterial and critter inniculation.
Coraline algae available rocks on the market now (even US maricultured rock) is typically from waters of 30 feet or more depth and therefore require very little lighting to grow. Actually yu will have more difficulties growing coraline under intense lighting.

 

[Bifferwine]

I agree with Fatman about the coralline, I have a single 12-inch regular old fluorescent strip bulb over my fuge and have no problem growing coralline with it.