Tropic Eden Reef Flakes or Mini Flakes?

MattinIdaho · Mar 14, 2012

I love the look of the mini flakes, just don't want to hassle with a sand storm. They look big enough to handle some flow but don't want to buy 200lbs and find out that they are too small.
I really prefer the look of fine grain sand but have gone to small in the past and regretted it.
What are some opinions?

revhtree · Mar 14, 2012

I have used the Reef Flakes and love them. Pretty fine but doesn't blow around.

reeffirstaid · Mar 14, 2012

The only experience I have with Flake Food is Cycolpeeze flakes. They are a great food although I have found they spend a lot of time at the surface.

GvineReefer · Mar 14, 2012

You may also want to try out the CaribSea SeaFlor Special Grade reef sand. It is very similar to the TE Reef Flakes, but more readily available. Around here it is hard to come by the reef flakes for the most part. I've used the special grade reef sand on my last 2 tanks and love it.

Mike&Terry · Mar 14, 2012

The Mini Flakes sand is considerably smaller than the Reef Flakes. We have a mix of the two in the center area of our tank and haven't had any issues with sand blowing around. We have quite a bit of flow in the bottom area of our tank (closed loop and Tunze 6105 Turbell Stream pump sitting on the bottom of our tank) without issue.

We used the Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade with our first 300g tank because we could not find TE Reeflakes at the time and had issues with sand blowing around.

GvineReefer · Mar 14, 2012

Interesting, I've not had any issues nor have the people that I know that have it. I've got 2 MP40's on my current 120 and the sand bed stays undisturbed for the most part.

Mike&Terry said:
We used the Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade with our first 300g tank because we could not find TE Reeflakes at the time and had issues with sand blowing around.

Mike&Terry · Mar 14, 2012

Every system is different. We have a lot of flow in the bottom of our tank between our 4 outlet closed loop and the Tunze that sits on the sand bed. We also have 5 leopard wrasses love to dive into the sand. :bigsmile:

MattinIdaho · Mar 14, 2012

I ended up ordering 210lbs of the Reef Flakes. Hopefully they are in stock.

jbsmurf · Mar 14, 2012

I wanted to use TE Reef flakes and mini reef flakes as a mixture but since I would have had to ship it I decided to go with caribsea special grade. I blast my nano with a ton of flow and dont have any issues at all with it blowing around. the only difference between the TE and special grade is the TE is whiter than the special grade.

MattinIdaho · Mar 14, 2012

jbsmurf said:
the only difference between the TE and special grade is the TE is whiter than the special grade.

The TE looks smaller in pictures than the Caribsea. I like the look of small grain sand. I'm hoping the TE meets halfway between the look I like and what will be functional in my tank. Regardless it's going in this Tuesday.

jbsmurf · Mar 15, 2012

Throw up some pics. I think ill order in some te when I setup my 90

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MattinIdaho · Mar 20, 2012

My Reef Flakes arrived today. That is the cleanest sand I have seen. It's just the right size for what I need. Beautiful sand. If I ever bought sand again I would not even shop around.

Mike&Terry · Mar 20, 2012

Glad to hear you are pleased with it. It really is amazing just how clean that sand is.

ReefDVMs · Mar 2, 2013

MattinIdaho said:
My Reef Flakes arrived today. That is the cleanest sand I have seen. It's just the right size for what I need. Beautiful sand. If I ever bought sand again I would not even shop around.

I know its been a year since this thread but do you still like the flakes, are they staying put for you? Do you have any sand loving critters in them? Do you use ecotech pumps or hydors in your system at all?

MattinIdaho · Mar 2, 2013

After a year I'm still loving it. I have Nassarius Snails and a Sandsifting Star that love to burrow through it. I've had wrasses that did really well with it also (until they jumped ship). It is plenty fine enough for critters to dig around in. Yes it stays in place really well. I am running 2 Koralia 6's and 2 Koralia 5's on a Koralia Smartwave and 2 koralia 3's flowing through my aquascape.