Types of aquarium sands

[sunnyreefer]

Could someone give me a rundown of the pros and cons of the diffrent types of sands for a marine aquarium

thanks!

 

[ScottR]

Could someone give me a rundown of the pros and cons of the diffrent types of sands for a marine aquarium

thanks!

Although I can’t be of much help here, only buy sand meant for a saltwater aquarium. Live sand is sand that’s had a nitrifying bacteria added to it to help speed up the cycle. Dry sand is just pure sand. Dry sand needs to be rinsed. Live sand doesn’t. Con of live sand is it cloudys up your tank. Almost all sand has silicates which will give you a brown diatom algae bloom in the initial stages once your lights go live. It’s normal. There are different grains of salt. So you may want to make a list of what fish and inverts you ultimately want to keep and make sure you have the right sand for them. Some people go with a more coarse type of substrate which is good for high flow SPS tanks. Some with a fine powder which looks cleaner but can get blown around more with lots of flow. Many wrasses for example need sand to sleep in. Some snails also burrow in the sand.

 

[ScottR]

And Welcome to REEF2REEF!!! Ask as many questions as you want. No question is too stupid. Everyone is here to help.

 

[sunnyreefer]

Here is a list of livestock excluding corals I would put in my tank

Clowns
Cleaner shrimp
clown goby
nastaria snails
maybe sailfin blenny
maybe fire fish

will be a reef tank

 

[ScottR]

Here is a list of livestock excluding corals I would put in my tank

Clowns
Cleaner shrimp
clown goby
nastaria snails
maybe sailfin blenny
maybe fire fish

will be a reef tank

How big will the tank be? And what kind of tank? Not a bad list. Clown gobys prefer to live in SPS. Some say they nip at polyps. I typically would leave this one for a more established tank as opposed to a new one.

 

[sunnyreefer]

How big will the tank be? And what kind of tank? Not a bad list. Clown gobys prefer to live in SPS. Some say they nip at polyps. I typically would leave this one for a more established tank as opposed to a new one.

It will be a 20 I'm only starting with the clownfish and clean up crew after it's cycled an then waiting to add other fish and corals to the reef tank