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which sand?

what kind of sand does everyone use? i had bahama oolite which is .5mm to 1mm and it was always floating around my tank at the flick of a tail fin. what kinds of sand are best for tanks with high flow yet can still maintain good de-nitrifying bacteria?
 
Remote DSB is the best solution if the flow is that high. You could try the larger grain ones such as Flamingo Reef or SeaFlor Special grade but unless you go with something with weight (ie crushed coral or rock/gravel), I think you will get the sand blown without adjusting flow.
 
In my old 75 and in my current 180 I used both Caribsea Aragamax Sugar-Sized Sand: 0.2 - 1.2mm AND CaribSea Arag-Alive Bahamas Oolite Sand 20lbs, and once established never really had/have a problem with it blowing around, even with 2 VorTechs turned up pretty high. My sandbed is around 2".
 
Like Wendy I too have Bahama oolite in 3 of my tanks and pink fiji in the other, I don't have a problem either with it blowing around (at first I did when the tanks where new). In my 120 I have a vortech, tunze 6000, and 3 hydor 3's, in my 80g bow I have 2 vortechs, 2 tunze 6055's and a hydor 1 and no problems with blowing sand. If you plan to keep gobies or other sand dwelling fish you want a smaller grain sand (it's better for them) if not you can go with a sand that is a bigger grain like pink fiji or special grade, I like the oolite the best. Any of the 3 sands will give you the de-nitrifying benefit as long as the sand bed is deep enough. I like a 2-3" sand bed in my tanks and keep a 4" bed in my sump/fuge, my other sump/fuge has a 3" mud bed and 2-3" sand bed in the display. So it really is up to you what sand you use, it's really just a matter of playing with the power heads to get the flow the way you like it and waiting for the sand to settle down. It took mine a good month, it helps if you have a gobi to stir it up, it makes the tank look like crap at first but after a while you wont get the dust storms like when the sand was new.
 
rniedzia said:
where can i get Bahama oolite locally at the decent price? i would be looking at 100-125pounds?

i might have about 100 pounds of bahama oolite that was in my tank that i could sell you as i want something a little more course. lmk if you are interested and i can figure out how much i have.
 
This is not a for sale thread. Please do not post for sale posts here.

rneidzia - personally i'd want to avoid paying shipping on all that sand, so I'd suggest going down the vendor forum and calling a few near you to see if they have some of this type of sand.
 
Hawkeye said:
This is not a for sale thread. Please do not post for sale posts here.

rneidzia - personally i'd want to avoid paying shipping on all that sand, so I'd suggest going down the vendor forum and calling a few near you to see if they have some of this type of sand.

sorry bout that...
 
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