Changing to Sand- Need Help

Ok, so I currently have crushed coral substrate in my tank and I am pretty sure it is contributing to my algae problem as I cannot vacuum all of it due to corals/LR. I am moving my tank in about a month and I'm going to take the opportunity to move to sand.

Anyone have any suggestions on what grain size I should get for my DT? I have oolitic in my HOB refugium, but I fear that is too fine for my DT as I have a lot more flow.

Thanks

 

This depends on the needs of your stock. What do you have in the tank now?

 

Nothing that currently digs into the substrate other than nassarius snails. I also have a ton of coral (softies, LPS, SPS) and the following fish:

• 2 Ocellaris Clowns
• Midas Blenny
• Orchid Dottyback
• Sixline Wrasse

 

In that case, you can basically get whatever you like best. I have fine sand from reefrocks (I would say it is basically oolitic) and as long as you do not have powerheads blowing right on the sand, you will not have a problem. The flow in the tank will create some low and high spots initially, but after a couple days you will see very little movement in the sand. You could adjust the powerheads as needed too.

So I guess it really comes down to your preference

 

Yea, I guess my problem is that I don't know my preference because I haven't had sand, just CC. I hate the idea of my sand blowing all over the place, but I'd like to have smaller grains because I believe they look nicer. I guess I will go with a medium grain...

 

MarcoRocks - try the course sand

 

I had Marco rocks sand when I switched my CC to sand and hated it. It took hours of rinsing and even then, clouded the tank badly, and blew around, even a few months afterwards. The coarse sand was mixed with a ton of fine sand in my case. The coarse slowly rose to the top and doesn't look nearly as nice as the fine sand, IMO

I just put reef rocks sand in, it comes pre rinsed and love it, super white, and it is smaller grain. It is still blowing around a bit, but I've only had the tank running with the power heads for a few days, and it seems like its settling nicely.
plus if ya need more rock, their rock is great and you get 40 pounds of sand delivered for $15 if ya purchase 25 pounds of rock.

However, this is an early review, so not sure about long term with reef rocks.

 

My thoughts exactly!

Here is a closeup of this exact sand:



You will see it comes with plenty of shells mixed in. And as mentioned, once the sand does what it wants as far as blowing around, it settles in nicely and you only see a few grains blowing when a powerhead turns on (if you have a wavemaker).

 

Reef crystals. FTW! Stuff is awesome! Just upgraded to a 120 and added the RC, looks great and everyone comments on the sand being so nice. Really white(5% pink), nice consistent grain size, and awesome. Just my .02

 

How are you still making out with this sand? I am thinking i might order some soon!