Substrate...what's you fav and why.

blackwater

blackwater

Active Member
hi there, haven't been on here in a long time. quick up date. i sold my 29gallon :tears: i found out the hard way that taking care of multiple tanks (fresh and marine) plus work and family life was too much. so i will be starting over again with just one tank.

wish i could remember the type of substrate i used last time but i can't. anyways it clouded very easily and i was always having to blow off the rocks with a turkey baster. this time i would like to get something that does not cloud so easily. your thoughts and advice are appreciated. thanx.
 
DianaKay

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
+1^ Wish I had of gone with all CaribSea Special Grade...not too fine & not too coarse. The stuff I used was too fine & I added some of the sand recommend above by Glenn. I liked it! :)
 
F

FishOuttaWater

Member
I prefer the same sand but not live. To me live sand is a waste of money. You're paying more for it to be "live". But you get less sand because its wet. Even though the weight is the same. All you need is a cup or two of sand from an established tank and that will start your sand right up.


Matt
 
blackwater

blackwater

Active Member
does the caribsea argonite special grade reef sand still need to be rinsed like other sands? also could i just mix the live caribsea and the dry?
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
You will want to give the dry a quick rinse... but many have forgot this step & it will clear, just takes longer... you cam mix them too
 
blackwater

blackwater

Active Member
thanx. i thought that would apply to the dry too. what about the live? rinsing would be detrimental? with my last tank i used a live sand and did not rinse... slowly over time junk started showing up in the sand bed. not sure what it was but it looked like garbage.
 
F

FishOuttaWater

Member
It's probably better if you rinse. We didnt rinse it when we set up out new tank. We just stirred up the sand real good during the first water change to get the small particles to skim and filter out. Our lfs said he does all of his tanks like that. Would rather vacuum the sand once or twice during water changes than have to wash the sand.


Matt
 
M

mcarroll

New Member
I agree the live sand prices are higher (about double IIRC) it may be worth it to some....but not because it's live.

BTW, I'm mostly referring to Ocean Direct (Original Grade) from Carib Sea. You can see pics of it on the linked page.

The first main reason I think it's worth it is that I like the consistency. It is much more naturalistic than virtually all the rest. The blend of grains is perfect....totally non-uniform (.25mm-6.5mm) so the sand bed doesn't look as artificial as many do. The bulk of the grains are at a nice practical size that doesn't blow around or let too much detritus in...the fines and bigger chunks naturally fill in and stabilize those pieces for a perfect sand bed. (It's no coincidence that these characteristics make for a good soil bed in your garden too.)

Second, Ocean Direct can go straight into an aquarium from the bag with no more mess in the water than you'd expect. Try adding a bag of Seaflor Special Grade dry sand to the tank and it'll be a month before you can see anything in the tank - extensive rinsing using a pretty large volume of water is required to make most of the dry sands suitable for the tank.

I've seen people decide to spend twice as much for this bagged "live" stuff just due to not wanting the hassle involved with rinsing or just because it was winter time and they didn't want to set up a big cleaning operation indoors....lots of reasons. I even saw a few people get it because it's "live". :)

Personally, I like it both for the aesthetics as well as the performance...if I were going to change from bare bottom I would go back to this stuff at about 1" depth. I would also select this sand if I were doing a DSB. :)

If I needed a "kick start" for my sand bed more than what a new coral frag would introduce - which I shouldn't - I would ask my LFS if they'd scrape up a little crud and water from the bottom of their live rock container. Half a pound even if mostly water should be enough - more may be better but I wouldn't go too crazy with it.

If they look at you funny for asking, just offer to pay their live sand rate for it. ;)

-Matt
 
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