Sand for Rabbit snails

[rusalka]

Hi,
I recently purchased 3 Orange Rabbits. I have two kinds of sand at home, black beach sand (from Hawai, I belive, bought from e-bay) and Eco-complete. I consulted the seller what substrate he uses, and he told me, Eco Complete showed to be too harsh for these snails, they tend to hurt their bodies.
So the question is about black sea sand, if I can use it? Some people on the web say it's going to leech Calcium into the water, but this is what we do with wonder shells anyway. Snails need Ca.
I will boil the sand of course to avoid bacteria.

Isn't it too fine for the snails? The sand is really fine, I think the lake bottom sand is different from the sea sand.
Is there a way to neutralize other "bad" elements that may be there?

Or should I avoid it altogether and buy another product? I just wanted to use something I already have...


PS. The tank has Rabbit Snails, Pagoda Snails, and Amano shrimps. I don't plan to put any fish in it. It has potted and free floating plants as well, I'm still figuring out which plants can grow best in there.

[rusalka]

I have been researching:

"The most widespread type of black sand is composed of volcanic minerals and lava fragments. Such sands are especially common on the coasts of volcanic islands (Hawai’i, the Canary Islands, the Aleutians, etc.). Black sand beaches are black because many volcanic minerals and rocks are dark-colored. Common rock types of volcanic islands are basalt (black when fresh), andesite (usually dark gray) and volcanic glass (often black in color). The minerals that give black color to these rocks are predominantly pyroxenes (mostly augite), amphiboles (mostly hornblende) and iron oxides (mostly magnetite). Such sands are heavier than ‘normal’ light-colored sands and become very hot on a sunny day."


"Black volcanic sands may contain many non-black grains like green olivine crystals, reddish (usually because of weathering) volcanic rocks, light-colored quartz (when the source area is continental) and carbonate biogenic grains (coral sand). Most volcanic minerals are not very stable. They decompose pretty rapidly. These sands are said to be compositionally immature (mature sands are composed of quartz and other minerals very resistant to weathering). They also contain unusally high content of lithic (rock) fragments which have not broken up yet to form a sand composed of individual mineral grains."

From here: www.sandatlas.org/what-is-black-sand/

[angelminx]

I had problems finding black/dark sands myself, and ended up mixing Seachem's Fluorite Black Sand with their Onyx Sand (which is larger grained and more gray in color, and will also supply some carbonates to the water) for my 55G tank (this was capped off by a layer of gravel).  Their Black Sand is very fine, but not as coarse as the Onyx Sand--or the black sand I ended up getting, from Petco at a later date, for my Cories' sandbox (because I only needed a small amount, and it was available in a small bag--and I didn't have any of the other left.)

At the moment I have my (remaining) chocolate rabbit snail in the 10G (as well as 3 Nerite snails); I recently replaced the gravel that was in the tank with CaribSea's Torpedo Beach Sand..so far they haven't seemed to have any problems with it.  It is a coarser sand as well, but is more like a very fine gravel when you compare its grain size to the other sands I have.

I prefer a darker substrate (a lot of fish do too) but this is really nice.  Here's a couple pictures of it with my rabbit (and a couple buried banjo catfish):
     

[Carl]

I think you answered much of your question with your research

As noted in your referenced article, not all black sands are the same, but as a generalization they are of volcanic origin which means these will not leech additional carbonates that some beach sands can do.
As for the comparison to Wonder Shells, this would be better with coral based beach sands, and even then when we use a Wonder Shell for community freshwater fish, it is in small quantities, not an entire substrate unless for African Cichlids or similar.

What I would do is add a clean container with water, then measure pH, KH, & GH. then add a considerable amount of the black sand and re-measure over the coming week(s)

You can also mix with fine river sand should the test results be less than desirable.
Reference:
www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2006/08/aquarium-gravel-which-size.html

The other main consideration is how sharp it is, as this can injure the snails "foot". so if very smooth under a magnifying glass, this should be OK from this prospective. If sharp and angular, I would not use it.

Finally the other caution is simply the use of too fine a sand that might allow for Hydrogen Sulfide production.

Reference:
www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2008/11/hydrogen-sulfides.html

Carl

[rusalka]

OMG, such a simple idea, yet I got so surprised – to measure parameters change in a container with sand! ) I will definitely do it.
Carl, thank you. As usual, you giving more information to think about. By just reading your articles I learned more in the last year than in the previous 15 years of my hobby.

angelminx, I see the white sand in the pics has pretty rounded sand grains.
unfortunately my black sand under magnifying glass yesterday looked nothing like this, all grains uneven, some big, some small, and all kinds of shapes. By the touch of my fingers It's not sharp or coarse (all in all it's pretty fine, Eco Complete feels more coarse to the fingers), but there is such things as abrasion... I'm worried there will be micro abrasion, and I can only guess how it feels to the soft mollusk body.

I think I will do the test and fill with the sand just a part of the tank, or a bowl inside it. I hope snails will show me if they like it or not.