Silica sand

Hey guys Im gonna put up my 75 for a 2nd tank and I have 3 buckets of silica sand leftover from last summer when i had my cichlids,  Can I use this in a reef tank?  Thanks

 

I would not. Sand is cheap...start new ;-0)

 

I just did a little research on this and see plenty of people using silica sand in reef tanks. If you got it clean and dry, it should be ok. If it had any foul odor, i would not use it. Personally, I have switched to bare bottom tanks (my thought is my substrate turned into a nutrient sink).

 

Well I called a couple pet stores and was told that the silica sand was a no because the silica encourages algae growth. Now I know why I always had issues with my cichlids.

 

A couple years ago, I thought I had read a lot of evidence that silicates would feed diatom growth also (can't seem to find that now) - algae or diatoms it sounds like it might be a mess...even with aragonite substrate (it was tough to keep detritus from building up in it), I had a heck of an algae bloom going on...

 

Yeah I found somehow the article your talking about and now I cant find it. Is a black plastic board bottom ok? Im just tired of messing with sand.

 

Yeah I found somehow the article your talking about and now I cant find it. Is a black plastic board bottom ok? Im just tired of messing with sand.