Need help choosing substrate and bonding material for rock

[Sink_or_Swim]

Forget the 'live sand' imo....regular Carib Sea arognite will do nicely. Skip the putty as well, it's not strong enough a bond if you are stacking rock. Use something like reef welder or stone fix, even an epoxy.
Get a good sized live rock or two then go with the 'life rock' once established for a month or two....

I went ahead and ordered the E-Marco-400 aquascaping mortar kit after seeing some good reviews. Just to be safe I'll most likely use some extra glue as well.

 

[Subsea]

Live sand in a bag is close to useless. Use aroggonite substrate for its mineral content as a passive buffer for alkalinity & trae minerals. I do not consider coralline on rock qualifies to be called “live rock” just as I don’t consider wet sand with only nitrification bacteria to be called “Iive sand”.

This is “real” live rock:

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

 

[dedragon]

This is 100% not needed but i have been currently trying out pns pro bio bacteria because i had bacterial mulm build up. It seems to have stopped it for now which is interesting. I know they have a specific one (pns substrate sauce) for cycling aquariums. If starting with a dry cycle i would highly recommend it as it has both a different variety of bacteria that other bottled sources dont have as well as some phosphate to start the tank off at a good concentration for nutrients, with microbe lift one and 2 i dont think you need fritzyme(should all be similar nitrifying bacteria)

 

[ReefGeezer]

I went with plain old aragonite sand with my Wrasses in mind when I set up my 90. It is pretty fine. It was a PIA for a while and initially I regretted my decision. Sand initially blew everywhere and my sand sifting goby rained down sand of the Zoas at the bottom of the rocks. BUT... The wavemakers eventually piled the sand in the dead spots in the back and corners. Now it's great. Deep sand for the Wrasses, and bare bottom everywhere else. I run two FX350 (Forward 30%/Backward 50%) and an MP40 (40%) and the sand stays put... as long as I don't change the flow pattern... or the Goby doesn't decide to make it rain on the corals.

 

[dedragon]

I went with plain old aragonite sand with my Wrasses in mind when I set up my 90. It is pretty fine. It was a PIA for a while and initially I regretted my decision. Sand initially blew everywhere and my sand sifting goby rained down sand of the Zoas at the bottom of the rocks. BUT... The wavemakers eventually piled the sand in the dead spots in the back and corners. Now it's great. Deep sand for the Wrasses, and bare bottom everywhere else. I run two FX350 (Forward 30%/Backward 50%) and an MP40 (40%) and the sand stays put... as long as I don't change the flow pattern... or the Goby doesn't decide to make it rain on the corals.

I had this same problem, i used fiji pink mixed with reef special grade for my main dt, but most particles were way smaller so now i have piles of the big stuff and like a barebottom up front. This was the main reason i needed to test the meso flakes and reefflakes, much better consistency

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

This is 100% not needed but i have been currently trying out pns pro bio bacteria because i had bacterial mulm build up. It seems to have stopped it for now which is interesting. I know they have a specific one (pns substrate sauce) for cycling aquariums. If starting with a dry cycle i would highly recommend it as it has both a different variety of bacteria that other bottled sources dont have as well as some phosphate to start the tank off at a good concentration for nutrients, with microbe lift one and 2 i dont think you need fritzyme(should all be similar nitrifying bacteria)

So I decided to look up the PNS substrate sauce... and totally went down the rabbit hole for a good chunk of my afternoon. ;Bookworm This article in particular was really interesting: https://www.hydrospace.store/post/using-pns-substrate-sauce I'm actually thinking about ordering AlgaeBarn's "ultimate aquarium cycle kit" since it comes with the PNS substrate sauce, their "nitrocycle" product, small bottle of FritzZyme and 12 (2") MarinePure cubes (which look like pretty good bio-media compared to some others I've used in the past). Thanks for sharing your experience with the pro bio and glad it worked for your tank! May have to add that to the arsenal in the future if needed.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I went with plain old aragonite sand with my Wrasses in mind when I set up my 90. It is pretty fine. It was a PIA for a while and initially I regretted my decision. Sand initially blew everywhere and my sand sifting goby rained down sand of the Zoas at the bottom of the rocks. BUT... The wavemakers eventually piled the sand in the dead spots in the back and corners. Now it's great. Deep sand for the Wrasses, and bare bottom everywhere else. I run two FX350 (Forward 30%/Backward 50%) and an MP40 (40%) and the sand stays put... as long as I don't change the flow pattern... or the Goby doesn't decide to make it rain on the corals.

Good to know - I definitely don't want super fine sand, though probably won't have the flow to bother it much. I do want a goby eventually though! Silly gobies, making a mess of the tank - good thing they're so darn cute!

 

[dedragon]

I had my own question for them as I actually wasnt 100% on substrate sauce for my established tank (6 years) so i sent an email over to michael at algaebarn who connected me with kenneth at pns, just waiting on some responses from them. Would like to recommend them even more if i get a quick response as that shows commitment, will let you know

 

[dedragon]

it is very new stuff so im not 100% recommending it for the moment, just experimenting with it right now in my own tank to see if the bacterial diversity will help with mulm and unwanted algaes particularly

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I had my own question for them as I actually wasnt 100% on substrate sauce for my established tank (6 years) so i sent an email over to michael at algaebarn who connected me with kenneth at pns, just waiting on some responses from them. Would like to recommend them even more if i get a quick response as that shows commitment, will let you know

That's awesome - please let me know what he says when you get a response? Just watched a youtube vid where the MileHighReefer guy interviewed Ken (the owner of HydroSpace/creater of the special sauce, etc), I'm assuming the Kenneth AlgaeBarn put you in touch with - kind of long video but really interesting. I mean the guy's a microbiologist and seems like he knows his stuff obviously (as he should lol). AlgaeBarn seems like a good shop too - would definitely be good to know how responsive both they and PNS are. Customer service is super important to me, being that it's literally what I do for a living (with money, not bacteria, but still...)

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

it is very new stuff so im not 100% recommending it for the moment, just experimenting with it right now in my own tank to see if the bacterial diversity will help with mulm and unwanted algaes particularly

In the vid I watched (see my other comment), Ken also talks about

I had this same problem, i used fiji pink mixed with reef special grade for my main dt, but most particles were way smaller so now i have piles of the big stuff and like a barebottom up front. This was the main reason i needed to test the meso flakes and reefflakes, much better consistency

I decided to order a bag of the Tropic Eden tonga special pink (reviews suggested it's almost the same size grain as their miniflake). Miniflake and the larger reefflakes are out of stock currently, but if I find I end up needing something slightly more course, I'll try to get a bag of the reefflakes when back in stock and mix in). Tropic Eden looks whiter than CaribSea which I'm looking for, and more uniform, so hopefully it's worth the trouble getting it.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I had your dilemma 10 years ago, and almost went for coarser sand, but I knew I'd eventually want sand sleeping Wrasses. I went with Aragamax Select grain size 0.5mm-1.5mm and have used it ever since.
It's a pain with blowing around with new tanks and positioning wave makers/powerheads, but once you have things figured out it's good.
Don't point flow at it and it's all good.
I don't vacuum and don't need to, but I do occasionally scoop out dirty spots and wash it before placing back in the tank.

If you're looking for sand that won't blow around, pick something with at least a grain size of 2mm. Larger is better, but keep in mind most burrowing fish/critters won't be happy with it.

Ended up going with CaribSea fiji pink and half a bag of Tropic Eden special tonga pink on top... love it but my wavemaker was definitely blowing it around - currently playing around with placement to avoid that.