Sand type recommendations for SPS?

Tuffloud1 · Dec 6, 2019

I’m looking for a good type of sand that will have less tendency to blow around in a high flow SPS dominated tank.

What would you all recommend?

Thanks for any suggestions! Pictures welcome!

dank reefer · Dec 6, 2019

This sand would work as its coarse and shouldn't be blowing around much in your tank.
CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand

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Tuffloud1 · Dec 6, 2019

Jose Esteves said:
This sand would work as its coarse and shouldn't be blowing around much in your tank.
CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand

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Sweet, thank you. Do you know if Nassarius Snails can burrow in this?

zromano · Dec 6, 2019

I personally am going with a bare bottom my SPS build. It’s a Red Sea Reefer 250. Added a bag of sand to start the tank with and will siphon our after 4-6 months. Let’s me have high flow w/o worrying about sand blowing and nasty looking sand that’s a pain to keep clean.

Tuffloud1 · Dec 6, 2019

zromano said:
I personally am going with a bare bottom my SPS build. It’s a Red Sea Reefer 250. Added a bag of sand to start the tank with and will siphon our after 4-6 months. Let’s me have high flow w/o worrying about sand blowing and nasty looking sand that’s a pain to keep clean.

Yeah, my wife absolutely wants sand so that’s not an option for me!

BirdGuy21 · Dec 6, 2019

I'm using the Carib Sea Fiji Pink. My only regret is that I should have rinsed it before I added it to the tank. The instructions said not to rinse since it was "alive", but I am still siphoning up dust a year later. It's not so bad now that I got most of it out, but in some spots it is still there.

Tuffloud1 · Dec 6, 2019

BirdGuy21 said:
I'm using the Carib Sea Fiji Pink. My only regret is that I should have rinsed it before I added it to the tank. The instructions said not to rinse since it was "alive", but I am still siphoning up dust a year later. It's not so bad now that I got most of it out, but in some spots it is still there.

That’s the same sand I’ve had in my 90 since the beginning, 6 years ago. I love the look, but it blows around too much when the flow is increased.

On my new 262 build, I definitely want to be able to increase the flow without the sand storm.

dank reefer · Dec 6, 2019

Tuffloud1 said:
Sweet, thank you. Do you know if Nassarius Snails can burrow in this?

You shouldn't have any problems with snails, or sand sifting golbies with this substrate at all.

Reefpuck · Dec 6, 2019

I use caribsea aragonite...works well with high flow. Just keep the flow up in the water column and you'll be fine. The sand bed doesn't need high flow.

BirdGuy21 · Dec 6, 2019

Tuffloud1 said:
That’s the same sand I’ve had in my 90 since the beginning, 6 years ago. I love the look, but it blows around too much when the flow is increased.

On my new 262 build, I definitely want to be able to increase the flow without the sand storm.

I could see that happening with my sand. Mine gets moved around a bit in my 45 cube with my Gyre ramping up.

Midrats · Dec 6, 2019

Tropic Eden sands are beautiful and very consistently graded. Very clean, minimal rinsing required. Don't buy the wet bagged "live" sand, just go dry.

MTBake · Dec 6, 2019

squareriggersailor said:
Tropic Eden sands are beautiful and very consistently graded. Very clean, minimal rinsing required. Don't buy the wet bagged "live" sand, just go dry.

Too bad Trooic Eden is so hard to find. Can't find the dry reef flakes in stock anywhere right now.

TexAgReefer · Dec 6, 2019

squareriggersailor said:
Tropic Eden sands are beautiful and very consistently graded. Very clean, minimal rinsing required. Don't buy the wet bagged "live" sand, just go dry.

+1

Midrats · Dec 6, 2019

Amazon only has the 20# Aragavive versions available. I was disappointed with the Aragavive as it was discolored and not pure white. Premium has the Fiji Pink but that's pretty fine at .08.