Ocean Sand Alternative?

[HamiltonSeth]

Hello everyone,
This is my first post on this site. I currently own a 50 gal saltwater tank with aggressive fish. I just had a bamboo shark egg hatch and it is doing great. I know that my tank could not handle the shark for long so I bought a 180 gallon tank. I am a bid do-it-yourselfer and am making the stand, wet/dry and sump. I have been looking at different fine sands for the tank but they are very expensive. My uncle has a company, Specialized Building Products, that makes fine sand for playboxes. It is made of crushed marble. Here is a link to the sand site. http://www.specializedbuildingproducts.com/playbox.htm
Since I can get this stuff for almost nothing I was thinking of using it in my tank. Of course I know I must cycle the sand before switching my fish but does anyone see a problem with using this sand? It is very fine and looks great. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Seth

 

[boozeman]

any idea on the exact size...It sounds like it may be too fine.
also, I would question the composition, marble ofthen contains metal traces.

 

[Humahuma]

hmm thats an iffy one? because ur using that type of sand i would see how much it serrs up and if it dose any thing to the water after a while maybe try puting it in a regular salt water sultion for a while and see wat happens to it and compar to regular sand for salt tank and go from ther its better making sure and not have a problem and maybe lose ur shark. or start it and put some cheap fish like damsels in that tank with this new sand and see how well they fair with it?

 

[BigAl07]

I would have to warn you to NOT opt for that. Marble is extracted from quarries and it's know to have LOT of other minerals and could even contain copper and who knows what else. Copper is toxic for reef life in even MINUTE amounts. It's not worth it to save some $$ here.

Allen

 

[AQTCJAK]

Most people that use sand other than ment for saltwater tanks use South Land Play sand it is the cleanest by far.

As far as your shark is concerned. You have about 3.5 to 4 years before he will out grow the 180. But dont let him get to big first or you will have a dificult time finding some one to take him & also the bigger the shark is the harder they fight.

 

[Humahuma]

true true so u have plenty of time toi save some $$$ for some sand. granite is a metomorphic rock so it can bind with just about anything . so it will have 100;s of differnt kinds of minrels and other types of rock and wat ever els was around it when it was forming!