Marco Rocks coarse sand review

Discussion in 'Sand' started by OPForest, Jun 4, 2014.

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  1. timkatz71

    timkatz71 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2012
    Messages:
    69
    Location:
    Millstone Twp, NJ
    I have two tanks a 220 (72x24x32) and a 120 (36x24x32)
    The 220 I only have fine sand from Marco, I think 160lbs? And both fine and corse sand in the 120 I think 40 lbs of each. I moved in April and both tanks got refilled and new sand by May.
    The fine sand does need a lot of rinsing as stated, I like most was impatient. I had all of my fish and coral in totes, tubs, buckets, whatever I had left in the house when I broke tank down... I knew I didn't rinse enough but needed to get everything back into tank and running. When I first got everything back in tank I was not able to see anything (only about 3-4 hours after putting sand in). Because I wasn't able to see I couldn't do any aquascaping and just placed all rock and coral on the sand, next day or so I started moving some around, didn't get far, lost visibility. After a week or so I did get the general aquascaping complete. Power heads did create some more dust (expected) running 2 mp40 at 80% power 60-70% up side of tank.
    After about a two months sand storms were almost completely done, I added a sand sifting goby... When purchasing didn't think anything of it... Seemed as tho sand storms would never stop, would settle for a day or so and he would find himself digging and spitting sand in front of the wave maker. Now I am so glad that I just let it go, lots of changing filter socks but I truly looks natural now(will post pic when lights are on tomorrow). Sand was level and between the wave makers, sifter, gobies and dart fish the center 24" is about 1/4-1/2" deep and sides are 2-3" but tunnels and hiding places under rocks...
    In the 120 I was not in such a rush, I put the fine sand in first and corse on top, wish I would have either mixed or switched the order, on top looks rocky and almost like crushed coral, not bad but I can't put much in to stir the sand, I have a 12-14" snowflake eel, my snails and hermits keep disappearing. This too probably did require nor rinsing than I did, but water was so cloudy from other tank (same system) I couldn't tell the difference. This tank has 1 mp40 same height and power. I will also post pic of this tomorrow.
     
    Billme likes this.
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  3. timkatz71

    timkatz71 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2012
    Messages:
    69
    Location:
    Millstone Twp, NJ
    The 220...
    [​IMG]
    And the 120
    [​IMG]
     
    Matt Rogers likes this.
  4. Matt Rogers

    Matt Rogers Kingfish

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2000
    Messages:
    13,466
    Location:
    Berkeley, CA
    Nice review sir and a good reminder that you might need to rinse sand. So any preferences yet between the fine and coarse/fine combo? Have you thought about clean up crews yet?
     
  5. timkatz71

    timkatz71 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2012
    Messages:
    69
    Location:
    Millstone Twp, NJ
    I have put in about $100 worth of clean up crews... Most have ended up in my sump or fell victim to either the trigger or eel, I put a sand sifting star but haven't seen for a week or two.

    For the 220 I also put about the same in, but also was able to get a bit out of tank before the move.

    If you are planning to keep sps/ high current, or you have shallow tank I would stay with the corse. Visually the fine is much more appealing, but if you have excessive water movement at sand bed it will blow around. My mp40s are about 16-18" above sand bed.