Sand Choice?

[+Eckreef]

I am upgraded my tank next week and trying to decide on a substrate.

I currently have 2 inches of the caribsea select grade but have been unhappy with it as it seems to clump easily.

I had the sugar sized sand a decade ago and seem to remember being happy with it.

I was going to put in 2 inches of fresh sugar sized sand when I upgrade unless someone can talk me out of it

Any pros/cons/opinions?

[Robb in Austin]

How about a mix, might be a little more natural looking.

[+mcallahan]

How about a mix, might be a little more natural looking.

The sugar will settle out.

[+Eckreef]

The sugar will settle out.

Mark,

Do you mean that the sugar fine will settle to the bottom and the larger stuff will be at the top?

That was one of my concerns with mixing...

What do you use in your tank?

[+Eckreef]

Anyone else having problems with the special grade sand clumping?

Does the sugar fine stuff clump also?

[+mcallahan]

Mark,

Do you mean that the sugar fine will settle to the bottom and the larger stuff will be at the top?

That was one of my concerns with mixing...

What do you use in your tank?

yep, the fine stuff moves down, leaving you with just the carribsea stuff.

I think I'm using carribsea...i can't remember.

[DaJMasta]

I went with the more sugar sized stuff in both my tanks, having some grain size variance is good for replicating natural conditions and pod populations, but I get the impression that the 'special grade' stuff will settle to be a layer of crushed coral with sugar sand below, just too much of a grain size difference for me.

If you are interested in running DSB, the grain sizes MUST be on the smaller size, over 1.5mm or so won't cut it and I think the best sizes are 1mm and smaller.

[fishypets]

I like the Tropic Eden reef-flake. Used roughly 200lbs to set up my 200 and love it. It doesn't come live but it's easy to seed with live rock.

[Derekreefer]

I like the Caribsea Aragamax select. 0.5mm to 1.5mm size

[Crab Rangoon]

A lot of fish that are diggers & sand-dwellers (like gobies, or more importantly Jawfish) will prefer a mix. If you plan to keep much of them, or any Jaw's, I'd suggest using the sugar-grain sand for a bulk of your mix, and then having about 10-15% the Special Reef Grade sand. The fish that need the mixed grains to build their burrow will, like birds making a nest, pick & choose pieces of rubble & mouthfuls of sand to bring back and solidify their hole. With the sugar-type by itself, this will leave your fish with no option but to try and crowd small pebbles & LR rubble around their hole to prevent more of the sand from pouring in or the top from caving in.

[+KeeperOfTheZoo]

I've read very mixed things about mixed grain size sand beds. Honestly, the more I read about it the more it confuses me.

I replaced big chunky CC with sand (no idea what size, not sugar but it's not real large grain either) across most of the front of my tank (gotta finish one corner side). It was difficult to the point of futility to try and get all the CC out from around the rocks and behind them. So, now I have a mixed grain size bed because I have pieces of CC that have shifted up through the finer sand. I don't think it looks bad, actually, it looks very natural. Much like the sea floor when I've gone snorkeling in shallows around reefs/tide pools.

Will it create a problem though? I'm trying to avoid the danger zone of 2-3" of sand... the no mans land between shallow and deep because I've read that's a great way to cause problems in the tank. I can't find anything conclusive about mixing grain sizes though. I've read 'Don't do it at any cost', and I've read it's a good thing.