Sand for large tanks

[rrasco]

What sand is everyone using on their large tanks? Does everyone just pony up and buy like 6-8 bags or is there an alternative?

[Troy Valentine]

In my 240 i've been using the same sugar sized araganite since '02, and for me it was worth the initial investment. I figured its been tried enough times in successful reefs that if it didn't work I couldn't blame the sand bed. However stay clear of engineer gobies, they grow way to large and can destroy your sand bed. Maybe if you had it from the beginning you would be ok. But I added mine when my system was fully mature... Big mistake...... IMHO

[Troy Valentine]

Another reason I like the sugar fine sand is that as the sand is sifted from powerheads,return pumps, fish, snails, or any other sand sifter. It releases detritus in to the system to be fed to corals and all other filter feeders. Plenty of free food to go around....

[Europhyllia]

Seriously? lol. I remember you telling us how super awesome the engineer gobies are!!!

I put around 20 bags of Super Reef in my 215g to create a 6-7 inch sandbed for my jawfish. Yeah don't even ask how much $$$ tht was just for the substrate...

[Troy Valentine]

Seriously? lol. I remember you telling us how super awesome the engineer gobies are!!!

That was back when he was shy and never left his cave.... He is way too large and bold, and successfully turned over a 7 year old unmolested sandbed.... The corals are happier than they've ever been with all the nutrients that the sifted sandbed provided, but it has taken a year to stabilize. I've still got the same 7+ year old colonies.


I like my fish seen and not cursed at:)

[FireWater]

I went with 3 bags of Tropic Eden Aragasnow for my 120.

I like it as it has stayed the whitest of any sand I have had so far. It gets blown around a little, but stays down.

[rrasco]

Anyone tried marco sand?

[allan]

Erik got his sand from Marco.

[Europhyllia]

I've tried Marco sand and would rather dump river mud in my tank before doing that again. I had to pour a bunch of Caribsea reef grade on top to keep this stuff from flying everywhere. It is super duper fine. Like plaster dust. sugar fine looks like boulders compared to the Marco stuff

[Europhyllia]

could work if you have absolutely no flow in your tank...

[FireWater]

Ok, so I am guessing that you didn't like it Karin. LOL

[Europhyllia]

:D Got that right.

One of those things where going cheap just costs you more in the end...

[Troy Valentine]

Karin how long did you have it in your tank? Did you notice an elevated ALK or CA through dissolution?

[kkiel02]

Argasnow here. I love it.

[Europhyllia]

It was in the 125g and I didn't really check for that. The tank burst shortly after anyway (not due to the sand though. can't blame everything on that sand lol)

[Troy Valentine]

With the right application you could pull some trace elements out of it. Maybe a remote 5 gallon bucket sandbed with very low flow?

Kevin how deep is your "aragasnow" sandbed?

[CoryDude]

I used two 40lb bags of caribsea special grade reef sand. Then I topped it off with a 20lb bag of caribsea reef sand plus. The shells add a nice touch and the hermits love having extra homes to move into. At one time I planned on a watchman goby and pistol shrimp pair, hence the shells and coral pieces, but the pairings never worked and the watchman eventually disappered.

[kkiel02]

With the right application you could pull some trace elements out of it. Maybe a remote 5 gallon bucket sandbed with very low flow?

Kevin how deep is your "aragasnow" sandbed?
1"
I may be going dsb again once I get the mp40s. Right now I have rather low flow so I worry about food and detritus getting into the dsb. Also depends on if I can keep my nitrates down with this algae scrubber.