aquarium gravel

Hi all

Just busy setting up my tank slowly....

I am planning on using Dirks Palm fiber / chemicult 'setup' to establish my tank as a planted one.

I see a lot of people are using silica sand to cap the fiber... can somebody tell me if I can use the normal gravel you get from the LPS's. The grains are about 3-4mm in size so it is far larger then a silica sand grain. I am worried that with such big gaps/spacing that it will not cap the fiber sufficiently aswell as cause excessive leaching into the water.

Can somebody point me in the right direction please?!?

 

Hmmm,what about pool filter sand?
It is not a sand but a fine gravel.
And it is much cheaper.

 

Pool filter would be your best bet, but the larger gravel will also work!

I have PFS in mine, and the PFP has still leached, but eventually this can be removed by water changes, or more quickly with activated charcoal in your filter but only use it for a week or two before replacing it with more! Also bare in mind that charcoal will remove all nutrients from the water, so plant ferts etc will need to be replenished!!

With this in mind, water changes should be your first port of call!!

Regards
G!

 

isnt silicA the same thing as pool filter sand

 

Yer, Pool Filter Sand is made from Silica, but there are different grades, and so silica sand is not neccessarily pool filter sand!!

Hope that makes sense??

Cheers
G!

 

Yes... but you can also buy silica sand in different grades of grain size. Pool filter is one grade of silica sand.

 

hi

i queried with the prof earlier in the week , and he mentioned that charcoal wont remove the ferts from the water..?

 

Really?? I was always under the impression that Charcoal stripped the water of all nutrients!! Interesting!! If thats what the Prof says, then who am I to argue?

Cheers
G!

 

Big G and everyone else for that matter,

Activated charcoal binds carbon compounds that contain aromatic rings in their structures. This includes just about all medications and plant tannins and many others substances.

Activated charcoal does NOT bind any inorganic ions, in other words any substances with positive charges such as Calcium, Magnesium, etc or negative charges such as carbonate, sulphate etc. These are the substances that my and other suppliers plant ferts are made of, so activated charcoal does not remove them.

If activated charcoal could remove all these ions then you could use it to soften water and that it definitely does not do.

I think this is a very important point to remember.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

i just purchased pool filter sand 50kg(very heavy). The packet says (Si 02) 98% Fe2 03(iron oxide i presume?) 0.18% . Is this the right stuff?

 

Thanks for clearing that up Dirk... You have just given me a refresher course in chemistry!! I'd forgotten SOOO much!! That makes a lot of sense now though!!

Regards
G!

Where did you get 50KG's of PFS from at 10:00pm on a Sunday Night??

It sounds right to me, the Iron content will be good for the plants, but I notice that it there is still 1.22% unaccounted for?? Hope its nothing harmless??

Out of interest, what colour is it??

Regards
G!

 

lol i actually bought it earlier and had a proper look just now. Its brownish grey. It doesnt say anything about the missing 1.22% but i will double check tommorow

 

i checked again. The packaging doesnt account for the missing 1.22% . Does this sand need to be washed?

 

YES.... well not washed with soap or anything. Just rinsed very thoroughly.

A 40kg bag took me 4-5 hours to rinse clean. You need to rinse it over and over until the water coming out the sand is clear! PFS can be extremely dusty.

 

luckily i only need about 25kg for my 3ft. I dont know what im going to do with the playsand i've got...

 

Give it to the kids next door!

 

thats an idea. I think my cat will be interested in the sand though. The one thing i've noticed about playsand is that it traps moisture. I can see airbubbles trapped at the bottom as well as a lot of algae

 

Washed,washed,washed,washed,washed.........................................

Just do a little at atime,that way you will get the feeling that you are making progress.

 

i still have to haul that 50kg bag upto my flat. Not looking foward to that. Im hoping to revamp my tank starting this coming weekend.
I dont know where to keep my fish temporarily..

 

Stop worrying about the missing 1.22%. That would just be grit or stone which is not silica, but this is not serious. Remember the stuff is sold as silica sand so the analysis must reflect how much silica is in there.

And yes, wash the stuff thoroughly. The course gravel is not my favourite aquarium gravel, the fine one is and the reason for this is that the course stuff has got sharp edges which take off the barbels off cories, the fine stuff does not, but this is my personal choice, both are essentially inert once properly washed.

Kind regards,

Dirk