Special Grade Sand vs Reef Flakes

[DirtDiggler2823]

40 pounds of special grade, 60 pounds of reef flakes. Gonna mix em up, and toss em in.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

40 pounds of special grade, 60 pounds of reef flakes. Gonna mix em up, and toss em in.

I'll post pics once it's in the tank.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

Here it is.

 

[kkiel02]

Tropic Eden sand is my favorite. Caribsea was cloudy like others have said. I rinsed it with tap water but it was still much more cloudy than tropic eden. I love leopard wrasses so I prefer the more uniform size even thought they never got cuts on the caribsea either. But I also do understand the uniform look on tropic eden sand being a little “unnatural” looking.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

Tropic Eden sand is my favorite. Caribsea was cloudy like others have said. I rinsed it with tap water but it was still much more cloudy than tropic eden. I love leopard wrasses so I prefer the more uniform size even thought they never got cuts on the caribsea either. But I also do understand the uniform look on tropic eden sand being a little “unnatural” looking.

To be honest, they looked fairly similar. I like them mixed.

 

[Sirwin007]

Any advice on removing/installing sand in an existing tank?

My fairly new tank has been up and running for 4-5 months. The tank builder through in sand, and I should have told him what sand I wanted. Now my 2 xf250 gyers are pushing it around. I've tried some adjustments, but the answer is I just have the wrong sand. This is a 76x24x30 tank.

I personally love it. Nice and white, and level!

With 2 xf250 gyres running.

I personally love it. Nice and white, and level!

With 2 xf250 gyres running.

 

[pfoxgrover]

Any advice on removing/installing sand in an existing tank?

My fairly new tank has been up and running for 4-5 months. The tank builder through in sand, and I should have told him what sand I wanted. Now my 2 xf250 gyers are pushing it around. I've tried some adjustments, but the answer is I just have the wrong sand. This is a 76x24x30 tank.

If the sand is just moving around and not making a dirt storm, try putting down larger grain size sand or even crushed coral in the bare spots. That worked where my special grade reef sand kept making a bare spot.

 

[TriggerFinger]

I have the same two kinds of sand for mine though it’s not in the tank yet. Add more pics after you fill with water please!

 

[Sirwin007]

If the sand is just moving around and not making a dirt storm, try putting down larger grain size sand or even crushed coral in the bare spots. That worked where my special grade reef sand kept making a bare spot.

I've read post above that "special grade" doesn't move, even with 2 xf250 gyers running - No?. That special grade grain size looks much larger than my current sand. Your suggestion probably looks okay going from large to larger, but fine to larger might not look good. My current sand doesn't kick up (occasional small cyclone), but over 2-3 days makes large drifts and a big bare spot. I could dial them back, but I want to do SPS once I and this tank are ready. Each week I shovel it back.

Without tearing down this tank, here's my rough plan. Basically I'm thinking of using a siphon hose (larger than my cleaning hose) into a 55 gal trash can. I expect all kinds of "stuff" to kick up in that water. I would float a pump that rises with the water level to keep it above the accumulating sand. Have that pump push it into a second trash can, passing through a sock. Then pump it back, relatively clean into the DT. Think it will work, but what a pain.

To get the new sand in, wash in RODI and then feed it down through 1-2" pipe to the bottom of the DT.

I can imagine this will be a major pain, but I want to be setup for success. Soooo sorry I didn't specify what sand I needed!

Any better way? Will this process kill my fish that I've stocked to this point?

Thanks!

 

[doughboy]

To be honest, they looked fairly similar. I like them mixed.

special grade sand works just fine.
fwiw, when tropic eden sand first came out, the price is no different from carib sea sand. but when it got hyped and demand went up, premium aquatics opportunistically jacked up the price, like really high, and still could not keep up with the demand.
I would not be surprised if they are actually the same thing.

 

[pfoxgrover]

I've read post above that "special grade" doesn't move, even with 2 xf250 gyers running - No?. That special grade grain size looks much larger than my current sand. Your suggestion probably looks okay going from large to larger, but fine to larger might not look good. My current sand doesn't kick up (occasional small cyclone), but over 2-3 days makes large drifts and a big bare spot. I could dial them back, but I want to do SPS once I and this tank are ready. Each week I shovel it back.

Without tearing down this tank, here's my rough plan. Basically I'm thinking of using a siphon hose (larger than my cleaning hose) into a 55 gal trash can. I expect all kinds of "stuff" to kick up in that water. I would float a pump that rises with the water level to keep it above the accumulating sand. Have that pump push it into a second trash can, passing through a sock. Then pump it back, relatively clean into the DT. Think it will work, but what a pain.

To get the new sand in, wash in RODI and then feed it down through 1-2" pipe to the bottom of the DT.

I can imagine this will be a major pain, but I want to be setup for success. Soooo sorry I didn't specify what sand I needed!

Any better way? Will this process kill my fish that I've stocked to this point?

Thanks!

You might want to play it safe and swap the sand out like 10% a week or something like that. If you don't have any sensitive corals in the tank, the risk might be lower. Slow changes are usually better. Is it the sugar fine sand now? How deep is the sandbed?

At one point I drained my 240 gallon tank moved the fish, aquascape, and corals out, syphoned out the sand bed with a shop vac hose (what a mess, I think a heavy duty fish net might have worked better) then put the aquascape back in and replaced the sand bed and returned the corals and fish. Back then I had only a few SPS. Don't think anything died. Now that my tank is full of SPS I am afraid that any change could start some corals to STN. I have to move the tank soon so we will see if that happened.
Good luck!

 

[Zindebaad]

I have used reef flakes in 3 of my nano reefs. I have had nothing but success. I doubt I'll ever go back to Carrib-sea special grade.

 

[Zindebaad]

I have used Tropic Eden reef flakes in 3 of my nano reefs. I have met with nothing but success. I have LPS, SPS, softies and fish. I doubt I'll ever go back to Carrib-sea products. Remember, you get what you pay for. Excuse me for ending a sentence with a preposition.

 

[shred5]

Reefflakes - 3.0mm
Reefflakes Grand Select - 4.5mm
Special Grade Reef Sand - Grain Size 1.0 - 2.0 mm.

I have used both and both are great. Bigger the grain size the more they stay in place.

Special grade and reefflakes are about right.

 

[Bob Escher]

I use Fiji pink in my 45 Gallon and I have two MP10’s sitting across from each running at about 45% and the on,y thing tearing up the sand is my sand sifting diamond goby

 

[bckey]

Im using the tropic eden reef flakes and it has been absolutely great. Dont think i will go back to using carribsea sand.

I never used the special grade so i couldnt say for sure how it would come out.

Maybe that is why you would never go back to using Caribsea. You are comparing reeflakes to the wrong grade of Caribsea that this thread is about. Special grade.