Aragonite reef grade sand

[PineHill]

Does anyone use aragonite reef grade sand in a FW African Tang cichlid tank as substrate?  I've done a bit of reading on it and it even says so on the bag that it can be used for African cichlids. 
It should keep a high pH and hardness and how coarse is it? 
Does it "stir up" easily? 
Does it have a lifetime?  ie. Will it stop keeping the pH and hardness high after a while?
Any info/tips or comments would be great.  Thanks.

[celamllmal]

I also wondered the same.  Does anyone have info on this?

[Demasonian]

I have used Caribsea aragonite in a tank with Tanganyikans with no problems. It needs to be rinsed well, much more so than say pool filter sand, and still might kick up a fine cloud of dust during water changes. As far as I know, it does not have a lifespan, at least not in any meaningful way.

In terms of how high, I can't remember what my gh and kh were, but I remember there was a small upwards difference from my other African tank which had Caribsea African Cichlid sand. I still supplemented with a mixture of baking soda and epsom salts during water changes to keep ph around 8.4 and water hardness at acceptable levels for Africans.

It's a nice, coarse, white substrate. Just make sure you don't use the live stuff! 

[limmer]

Check out FS 90-120-150 tanks from Sylvain near Montreal.
All his tanks have argonite.  Looks pretty nice.
Been meaning to try it.

[kennyman]

Aragonite will begin to break down at around PH 7.9. So it buffers you from dropping below that pretty effectively. There is always some co2 being produced in the substrate as well that helps release Ca + Mg .


As for lifespan. That all depends on how much you rely on it to buffer. If it is working hard to maintain a ph of 8.0 you might have to add a few handfulls a year to keep the thickness of your substrate. It does not wear out, it breaks down.