[yolie]

Please help me!!
Is the CaribSea Aragamax Reef (fine, oolitic) sand safe for Corydoras freshwater fish? I added about 1 inch to my freshwater, 46 gallon tank (15lbs of Estes, 30lbs of Aragamax). It’s extremely cloudy right now so I can’t add fish to begin a cycle yet. I'm worried because it's been hours and it hasn't gotten any less cloudy. Can you suggest a way to clear-up the water? Someone told me on a forum that the cloudiness is most likely due to the sand buffering the KH up and that I’ll have a harder time keeping plants and some fish with this sand. Is this true? Why? Should I switch to a less fine sand? Lastly, when I move ornaments in my tank I get dust clouds. If I have small glider fish like Cory Cats on the sand will their gliding/wobbling around cause then to kick up dust clouds behind them?
Please reply soon. Thanks for your help in advance.

I don't have experience w/ the CaribSea Aragamax Reef but I've used play sand (from Home Depot) which is very fine also. The cloudiness took several days to clear completely.

You should start a new new thread about the Caribsea Ara. so others (who may have used it) can add their input more readily.

I'm lazy... with a plan... I got one hose sucking out water while the other hose puts water in... clearing it all up really fast and it's rinsing out the sand in it's only little way. I even got the water level to stay put while it does this change. It may take hours but I'd rather that then weeks. I'll post a new thread with an update.

GOOD GAWD. I'm a genious (sp?). I guess I'm more impatient then lazy because this took some work... I forgot to get a connector to the faucet. I recommend an outlet run spot lifter if u have carpeting... > Anyways, 2 hours and EVERYTHING IS PERRRRRRRRRRRRFECT! I can even run my hands thru the sand without DUST TRAILS!!! yay!

 

[Rex Grigg]

That sand is really going to buffer your water up. In fact you will end up with a natural pH of around 8.3 and a kH and gH so high it's not even funny.

 

[malkore]

Yeah argamax is really a saltwater/reef sand, and will add lots of Kh and some Gh as well.
Safe for corys...absolutely...it's nice soft stuff. Good for a FW planted tank....eh, not so much.

 

[yolie]

*is it true I shouldn't use the ehiem filter if I'm using this fine reef sand?

http://www.reeftalk.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/561/Main/555

*can I dose the tank or are there other options to keeping the kh, etc. stable?

I have swarts corys, julii corys, some platies, a suckermouth, & black moons. Everybody seems very happy.


Thanks.

 

[Momotaro]

Yolie, what I think "Omegatron" is saying is that a reef tank should not have a filter of any kind on it, not an Eheim in particular. "Omegatron" is trying to tell the conversant that a functioning reef environment does the filtration work on it's own. The live rock and the sand does the job.

If you are wondering if you can run an Eheim on a freshwater planted aquarium with a sand substrate, the answer would be yes.

Mike

 

[yolie]

:icon_idea

*can I dose the tank or are there other options to keeping the kh, etc. stable?

Use peat to soften, darken and acidify aquarium water?

 

[Ibn]

You can give it a shot, but then, you're really not gonna get much use out of it. The oolitic sand has a very high buffering capacity. Using RO water along with using peat would probably be your best chance, althouth at the end, it may be useless.

You're making a lot more work than it's naturally worth. The sand does look great (I know, I used to run a 5" deep layer of it in my reef tanks), but you're left with a high pH and hardness. I'd opt out of the sand, consider it a sunk cost and, pull all of it out. You don't have to worry about keeping the kH stable, since it has such a high buffering capacity.

It really should be left in the saltwater arena...

 

[gnatster]

My thoughts are with peat you will be forever chasing your tail if you try to lower the pH from where the substrate is going to force it to be. At this point yuo may want to think of keeping africans and plants appropriate to the conditions.

 

[malkore]

pull the sand, and try to sell it to a reef keeper to recoup your lost $$
then go buy appropriate sand...Onyx isn't bad for plants and won't buffer nearly like argonite sand.

 

[Raul-7]

Maybe you can save it or just setup an African cichlid tank, this stuff is IDEAL for it...no need to waste money selling it. And you can even use Anubias sp. and Java ferns if you want a planted tank along with the cichlids... roud: