sugar sand

[cyrus]

so sugar sand, has anyone used it in their tanks?

[Mr Cob]

I have. I thought it was too fine for my liking so I mixed it with aragonite. 50% mix. My current taank is 50% aragonite and 50% small crushed coral.

[Europhyllia]

Are you trying to do a deep sand bed?
I've looked for sugar sand and ended up getting a good deal on sand that was even finer than sugar sand. Since that achieved the DSB effect with less inches (easier to get anaerobic) it seemed like a good idea.
Just now I ended up with more circulation in the tank (2 sea swirls) and it was moving the super fine sand too much so I added a thin layer of heavier/bigger sand (special reef grade aragonite) on top to keep it from blowing around too much.
That seems to work out well for me.

[Daniel]

I had sugar size sand. It was what drove me to go bare bottom in my tanks. If you have strong current expect it to get on everything.

Daniel

[Ping]

Sugar sand is not a good idea in a high flow display. It is a very good choice for a DSB (4 inches or greater) in a DSB refugium. My choice for a high flow display is special grade Aragonite.

[cyrus]

is there anywhere you can get special grade Aragonite at a reasonable price?

[Ping]

Unfortunatly not. One large company controls the majority of the Aragonite sand for the marine aquarium market. Even with the price of around a dollar a pound, all our LFS sponsors really dont make a profit selling sand.

A few years ago I purchased about half a pallet through one of our LFS sponsors at just above cost and only saved a few dollars.

[justahobby]

Petsmart has it very cheap:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753226&lmdn=Product+Type

[corruption]

Gabe doesn't always carry it, for the reasons listed above by Ping, most likely, but when he has it, its $20 a bag, I believe... I think thats what i paid when i grabbed it from him.

-Justin

[Henny]

is there anywhere you can get special grade Aragonite at a reasonable price?

I have about 80#'s (two bags worth) of aragonite that I'm selling. It's still live too. I still have a heater and pump in it's container. It's the same kind they sell at Petsmart and the LFS. It's the same that Justahobby gave you a link to. You can have it all for $20.00.

Pm me if interested and I'll shoot you my number and address. I'm in San Antonio.

Diron

[cyrus]

so I guess the grand answer would be 3" o sugar sand topped with an inch or 2 of aragonite to reduce kick up?

[Europhyllia]

I have about 3-4 inch (varies) of finer than sugar sand and 1 inch of special reef grade. For me that does the trick. with real sugar fine you might need more like 4 inch + to get that anaerobic area.

[Ping]

cyrus, it depends on what you want the sand to do. Is this for the display or a fuge? Do you need denitrification? Tell us more on what you are doing for a set-up.

[cyrus]

I plan on having a deepbed fuge for denite' already. I'm cut down the middle on doing a strait clown and anemone tank or a predator reef. I don't think I will need much of a bed if I go with the anemone forest maybe 2-3 inches. The predator reef would be set around 4" or more.