Very fine live sand

[Gramma's Tank]

I have just started my tank and I have live sand. This sand is so fine it blows around easily with the wave maker. Should I add another type of substrate to the tank as well?

 

[dedragon]

How fine sand? Fiji pink from caribsea is about the finest i can even go, if you went oolite sand i might even replace the sand bed given there are no corals or fish yet. Is this for a reef tank (sps, softie or what type) or fowlr?

 

[Gramma's Tank]

I got CaribSea Arag-Alive Bahamas Oolite Live Argonite

 

[Gramma's Tank]

For now I'm only going to do FOWLR

 

[dedragon]

depending on how much sand you put in you could mix it with caribsea special grade to help hold it down, put the powerhead midway between top and bottom on the side of the tank, turn the power head a bit lower (if dc) and point it at an angle towards the water surface for surface agitation and to slow the flow a bit.
Fowlr typically dont need as much flow but it is nice to have the ability to increase flow via dc powerhead once in a while to blow off detritus, but you definitely need to add a coarser sand to it if you want to do that

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

i have very fine sand in my tank. It was a nightmare at first, but it does pack down after some time (about 6 month ish). Although, sometimes I accidentally stir up some sand, and my clowns host the sand so they are always kicking up sand, so does the goby, which basically forces me to clean my machines pretty often, about every 2=3 months. I always find fine sand particles in the machine when I take it apart.

I would never use fine sand again, and if you just started your tank and its still easy for you, you should consider to change it, or at least put an inch of other sand on top of it to weight it down.

 

[dedragon]

I would never use fine sand again, and if you just started your tank and its still easy for you, you should consider to change it, or at least put an inch of other sand on top of it to weight it down.

I think you will start seeing consistencies with these posts Gramma, anyone that has had to change out filter floss/socks everyday due to a sandstorm will have experienced this trouble before. It looks amazing though and I always have wanted to get it to work,
Im thinking my next tank might have a faux sandbed glueing the oolite sand to the top of a board to hopefully give it the same look without at many issues, i will need a boatload of snails to keep that looking clean though.....

 

[BanjoBandito]

mix in aragonite. Or put it on top. I always mix with aragonite unless I need the fine-ness for a specific purpose. I like my sand to not be all packed into a big ol' clump down there.

 

[AdamG280]

i have very fine sand in my tank. It was a nightmare at first, but it does pack down after some time (about 6 month ish). Although, sometimes I accidentally stir up some sand, and my clowns host the sand so they are always kicking up sand, so does the goby, which basically forces me to clean my machines pretty often, about every 2=3 months. I always find fine sand particles in the machine when I take it apart.

I would never use fine sand again, and if you just started your tank and its still easy for you, you should consider to change it, or at least put an inch of other sand on top of it to weight it down.

I know some time has passed, but this info is helpful to me in the present

 

[Devaji]

Im thinking my next tank might have a faux sandbed glueing the oolite sand to the top of a board to hopefully give it the same look without at many issues, i will need a boatload of snails to keep that looking clean though.....

if I recall I think someone maybe (jay from eco tech) tried something like this on a company build challenge once. it did not work out well.
cool idea tho. let us know if you try it.

edit. I did not see this was an older thread. lol