Using play sand

[rgun2515]

Pavestone white play sand. Label says "May have small amounts of silica..."
What do you think? OK to use? What harm can silica cause? Got it at Home Depot.

 

[al0ha]

i believe its harmful...loads of impurities and silica

 

[Killerdrgn]

silica can cause certain diatom and algae blooms.
But there are some people that use the Home Depot play sand for RDSB's.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

The sand that people, including myself, used was Southdown play sand. It was oolitic aragonite, and it cost about $5-6 for a 50 lb bag. There was no difference that I could see between Southdown and ESV oolite. As far as I know, this kind of sand is no longer available, although old bags of it may be found in the backs of garden center storage rooms. All playsand that I have seen lately is silica based. While silica used to be blamed for diatom outbreaks, I think that its been pretty much disproven. I have seen silica sand in tanks, and certainly no outbreaks. My 10 gal local snail and crab tank has silica beach sand...and no diatom outbreaks at all...green cyano, yes, but that's because I am a lazy slob with the tank...the crabs don't care anyway. However, silica will not give you the buffering properties that aragonite will have. And, as already mentioned, there may be impurities and contaminants that wouldn't affect people, but could easily affect aquatic organisms.