Caribsea special grade size sand

DTz · Oct 8, 2023

Hi guys, just curious if anyone use this size for sps dominant tank? Isit big enuff to withstand the strong flow?

slingfox · Oct 8, 2023

I started my first tank a month and a half ago using Carib Sea Special Grade Live Sand. Big mistake since my two MP40s on 110 gallon display blew a decent amount of sand around. After a while I got tired of repositioning the moving sand piles. I went through the process of taking out all the sand with a shop vac and swapped in Tropic Eden Reef Flakes. The granule size for the Tropic Eden sand was larger and much more consistent. Going with dead rather than live sand meant I could thoroughly rinse the sand as well. Even the Reef Flakes move around but much less so than the Special Grade sand from Carib Sea.

williamCreery · Oct 8, 2023

No, but something very similar and bright white. I use Nature's Ocean Bio-Activ Live Aragonite Reef Substrate. For all my mixed reef tanks with high surface flow and good medium flow at the bottom for soft corals.

If you think the flow at the bottom is equivalent to as to the top disregard this info lol.

TangerineSpeedo · Oct 8, 2023

It will depend on how you run your flow. What pumps you use,, etc. But If you are asking this question, I assume this is you first venture in raising SPS. Then you are probably going to raise easy SPS, so the answer would be yes.

williamCreery · Oct 8, 2023

TangerineSpeedo said:
It will depend on how you run your flow. What pumps you use,, etc. But If you are asking this question, I assume this is you first venture in raising SPS. Then you are probably going to raise easy SPS, so the answer would be yes.

I got some very difficult SPS and LPS that have been growing for about 4 years. I would say my clowns do like to stir up the sand like a bunch of goof balls and I don’t seem to see the sand hurting them even if it was floating in the water display tank. Besides straight forward sand is always lifted in the real ocean and still yet never have negative affect on SPS or LPS coral which is also a good way of looking at it when choosing sand. Lol
I do know sand likes to cloud a tank but this sand I mentioned is fine sand but sure settles super fast due to its weights avoiding ever cloudy water.