Bpb Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Yes guys and gals, I've googled. Even may have brought this up on here over a year ago, but I'm revisiting changing my sandbed. Tank has been in my care close to 2 years, but still contains the same crushed coral bed it had for the last 5+ years. Used to be 7" deep, shortly after I got it, I reduced it down to 2". Fast forward to now. For many reasons I want to change my substrate. Whether it's completely necessary or not, I'm getting a leopard wrasse from someone and I understand they like a finer sand. Whether necessary or not, doesn't much matter. Simply put. I don't like my crushed coral. It's nice that it's heavy and sits in place in high flow, but it is ugly to my eyes and I want a finer grain sand. I keep a true mixed reef, with emphasis on acros and acans. I run biopellets, gfo, and carbon, as well as biweekly water changes and very heavy high variety feeding. I also have a lot of display macro, and don't much rely on my sandbed for denitrification. I don't want to run a deep sandbed, and would like to keep it to 2-3" at most. Tank is a 55 gallon with lots of rock. I truthfully only have about 3" from were the glass is, to where the rock work begins on the front and sides, and the rock is all the way to the back. I know I can probably get away with a single 40 pound bag and possibly have some left over. The sand is mainly decorative. I really like the look of the very fine sands like oolite and Fiji pink but also have very high flow and worry about getting bare glass in some spots from sand storms. Caribsea special grade also looks attractive as well as reef flakes, but I worry if the grain size will be too similar to my crushed coral. Don't want to order a bag of sand only to be disappointed. Kind of curious what type of sand everyone is running. I've asked several friends not on this site and the answer is always basically "I don't know, just fine grain reef sand I bout years ago don't remember what kind it was." That leads me to wonder if it truely matters either way since I'm running a shallow sandbed. Any preference here on a finer grain, but higher flow capable substrate for me to switch to? Yes, I know it's dangerous to change out the whole sandbed at once. Was gonna do it over the course of a couple months. Replace about 1/4 of the substrate at a time. Mainly so I have a manageable enough amount to sift though and pick out all the snails and such that I'll no doubt be vaccuuming up in the process. Also planning to keep most of the water I'm vaccuuming up and put right back into the tank so I don't lose too many Copepods and bacteria...or is that a bad idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph.Ruelle Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 pm'd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Use CaribSea Special Reef Grade. At 1mm-2mm in diameter, it is between oolite and crushed coral. I would limit the depth to 2" max so as not to get into denitrification. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceastman Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I just got some of the caribsea special reef grade. The grains are very uniform in size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceastman Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Why not have the substrate perform some denitrification? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 It guess I'm not totally against it. I've just run it shallow for quite a while and have based my equipment and maintenance around having a shallow sandbed. Plus my rock takes up so much of the footprint (not removing it when I change out the sand), that the sandbed is mainly for decorative purposes. I can barely even fit a gravel vac in between the front glass and the rocks in most spots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Why not have the substrate perform some denitrification? Denitrification comes with a certain amount of risk. Disturbance of the oxygen free sections, where denitrification occurs, releases toxins into the water column. Denitrification will always occur to some extent in any tank with live rock. Larger, more dense LR holds the greatest amount of denitrifying bacteria. Live Rock as a Biological Filter by Ronald L. Shimek Back when I started there were no alternatives to a DSB for maintenance-free systems. It's becoming a common practice to incorporate refugiums and bio-pellet reactors into sumps to handle the removal of nitrates. Of course most people tackle the problem with regular maintenance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 That pretty much sums it up for me on the matter, not to derail my own thread, but I agree deep sandbeds can be great but I'm not personally interested in managing the risks and completely changing my filtration methodology just for funsies. I like small frequent water changes simply because my Sps seem to be happy with them. Must be a trace elements thing. Bio pellet and gfo reactors should be doing an adequate job of nitrate and phosphate removal. As far as sand goes already have a couple special grade recommendations. I like the uniform grain size look and it seems heavy enough to handle the flow. Still not opposed to fine sand if someone presents some compelling arguments, but I have a feeling I'll largely be told what I already suspected. Are there any places locally that sell the special grade? Can't find it here. Considering ordering it if I must. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I just bought 120 lbs of special reef grade from premium aquatics. Best price, especially if you qualify for the free shipping Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 That pretty much sums it up for me on the matter, not to derail my own thread, but I agree deep sandbeds can be great but I'm not personally interested in managing the risks and completely changing my filtration methodology just for funsies. I like small frequent water changes simply because my Sps seem to be happy with them. Must be a trace elements thing. Bio pellet and gfo reactors should be doing an adequate job of nitrate and phosphate removal. As far as sand goes already have a couple special grade recommendations. I like the uniform grain size look and it seems heavy enough to handle the flow. Still not opposed to fine sand if someone presents some compelling arguments, but I have a feeling I'll largely be told what I already suspected. Are there any places locally that sell the special grade? Can't find it here. Considering ordering it if I must. I've made up my mind. I know what I'm doing. It is unlikely I will change my mind. Thanks for stopping by. Gotcha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 Lol not exactly. I mean sums it up on denitrification. Not totally married to special grade yet but it seems to be the favorite amongst those who HAVE stopped by. At least the favorite as far a a recommendation goes for my purposes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Got 120lbs of special reef grade as well for my new tank. Uniformity looks great in the bag at least. I'll let you know my impressions once I clean it and put it in the new tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 (edited) Ty, were you using special grade on your previous tank or was it something finer? It has been a long time since I have been by to see your tank but I seem to remember sugar grain sized sand. I could be crazy though. BTW never followed up but that tricolor valida plug with just a bit of encrusted base I got from you really took off and looks great! Edited December 23, 2013 by Bpb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I'm a big fan of this coral. Give me this over any of those crazy named SPS these days. Looks great man. I was using a grain size slightly larger than sugar fine but not that much more in my old tank. Wanted something that would stay in place better than my current sand as the powerheads blow it all over the place. That's why I went with the special reef grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceastman Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Ty, It is funny how similar our tank builds are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 It's because I've been copying your every move! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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