What live sand should I use

[Fish_Tank_J]

I am setting up a 70 gallon aquarium and was wondering where I should buy my live sand from online and what kind.

 

[skiergd011013]

I am setting up a 70 gallon aquarium and was wondering where I should buy my live sand from online and what kind.

have you considered bare bottom? After trying it, i will never own sand again.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I've had great success with CaribSea Fiji Pink

 

[dutch27]

I used to just buy the bags of live sand at Petco and it worked fine, not much life in it so to speak, but good particle sizes for a substrate.

I went bare bottom a few years ago though, and love it, so easy to clean.

 

[glb]

Depends on what will be in your tank. If you plan to have burrowing critters or fish, make sure to buy the right grain size. I used dry aragonite sand in my tank and have had no problems.

 

[Instigate]

Consider your livestock and flow requirements when picking sand. Sand sifters and burrowers need a smaller size, but if you want to grow sps you will want a coarser grain size to avoid to blowing around. Like stated above the fiji pink is a great option. Small enough for sifters and burrowers but large enough to hopefully avoid too much blowing around.

 

[brandon429]

no matter what you use, pre rinse it. as hard as you can, cloudless, as the alternative is of no benefit to you ever. you don't need any of the flocculants or additives that come with the sand

buy sand, pre rinse in buckets till it runs purely clean no matter the disturbance. then use it.

doesn't remove bacteria. we rinse 12 yr old beds, yours is easier as its new and not clogged.

The bags don't contain worms, they contain water sand and silt. pre rinse

pressure rinse it creatively, final rinse in saltwater, for purely no clouding effect best start you'll ever have if you do choose the sandbed route. my own sand falls like snowglobe grains when disturbed, its of no consequence now that it houses no cloud potential.

 

[Tallison]

I wouldn't buy live sand. Go dry sand and save yourself some money, I'm pretty sure BRS is having a Black Friday sale on it. I went with the special grade aragonite but whatever you do make sure you rinse it before hand.

 

[Mikedawg]

no matter what you use, pre rinse it. as hard as you can, cloudless, as the alternative is of no benefit to you ever. you don't need any of the flocculants or additives that come with the sand

buy sand, pre rinse in buckets till it runs purely clean no matter the disturbance. then use it.

doesn't remove bacteria. we rinse 12 yr old beds, yours is easier as its new and not clogged.

The bags don't contain worms, they contain water sand and silt. pre rinse

pressure rinse it creatively, final rinse in saltwater, for purely no clouding effect best start you'll ever have if you do choose the sandbed route. my own sand falls like snowglobe grains when disturbed, its of no consequence now that it houses no cloud potential.

Yep, I use the CaribSea products but see no need to put in their "bio-magnet" when it is easy to rinse (and re-rinse) their products. Of course, with this said, I would prefer to buy their dry sand and get more for my money. 25 lb bag of live sand has about 21 lbs of sand and 4 of water from my experience.

Any other impacts of flocculants other than making sand particles join together?

 

[brandon429]

I've used the flocs back in the day it's harmless it's just overtime we came to enjoy rinsing benefits

Agreed on dry sand yep