Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

If you decide to order some, let us know, we need to get some for the 55 to be set back up.

I don't know who declared the silica sand issue to be false, but I don't believe it. I can tell you from personal experience that if you use beach sand you will have unending algae problems. When I worked at Sea Lab we used beach sand all the time and always had problems with it.
Even if silica sand could be proven to be inert, you still would not want to use it just to be cheap. A reef tank, even a large one, is such a tiny microcosm compared to the ocean, that every piece of rock, every drop of water, grain of sand, polyp, fish, etc. has a terrifically disproportionate effect on the chemical and biological conditions of the tank as compared to the ocean. Why would you waste valuable tank space on a material that has no buffering ability, and can potentially cause a lot of expensive trouble?

I used sand from Gulf Shores in my first SW tank. I washed it real good and sifted all the cigarette butts out. It did look pretty good, but I'd never do it again either. I did have algae problems, but it was a new tank too. After about 6 months I upgraded to my 65G and threw out all that local sand. Since South Down (or its equivalent) is so cheap, I prefer to use it for the same reason Salty mentioned!

I have used silica sand before and had no abnormal algae outbreaks. The reason that I would not use it again is that it is hell on glass. Aragonite sand is far less abrasive and is cleaner looking. As a side note I rinsed my southdown to eliminate the smaller grains of sand but it was just a personal preference.

BTW, Welcome Old Salty! How about some more information about your system, (this is the first post I read tonight so I appologize if you already have).

Thanks for the welcome. I have been active in the hobby for over 20 years, but I am currently in the process of remodelling an old farmhouse that we bought out in the country. So there is no system right now. When we are finished with the house and get moved in, the new tank is going to get top priority.

Meanwhile I thought I would cruise this forum a little bit and put in my 2 cents worth every now and then. By the way this seems like a pretty good forum. I've been reading around on it a bit. Seems like most people are trying to be genuinely helpful to each other. I havent seen a lot of horn blowing and ego trips like on some boards.

I think one thing that helps us stay cool on here is because we actually all meet up once a month and have a relaxing, good, time... and because a lot of us know each other personally, there's less chance of ego trips. But who mnows, could just be the region, however I've found that Mobile folks can get cranky sometimes

Good to have you onboard!

I like to use potting soil.

Snakeman wrote:I like to use potting soil.

The best thing about meeting up once a month is so we can call "bull *^&#" to someones face when they get out of control!