Sand substrate

[Trippy712000]

I want to change the look of my 33 gallon aquarium...its been basically the same for the past 4 years, I was thinking of changing the substrate to oolitic sand..sugar fine...has anyone had a problem with this sand? i know you dont need as much of it...the course crushed coral i have now is to big for some sand sifting creatures i want...should i invest in some new sand?

 

[trido]

I would. IMO most reefers that start a tank change it out sooner or later. It tends to trap detritous quicker than sand.

 

[Trippy712000]

thanks for your reply,
in the mean time i have been doing some research and found alot of people also use pool filter sand, I hear its great and inexpensive, and since its manufatured its heavier and wont get syphoned up as easily when cleaning your tank.
i am going to call a pool supply place today and will post my findings.

 

[DaFrog]

Talking about cleaning - How often this should be done? How to clean the substrate without hurting the worms/stuff that live in it?
I have 3 to 5 inches sand at the bottom of my 75 gallons, mix of aragonite (40lbs) and florida live sand (55lbs) - It is full of life (lot of worms and one horseshoe crab)

 

[Anonymous]

oolitic aragonite is the way to go

in addition to providing one of the best habitats for denitrifying bacteria and the various worms, etc., that help a dsb function in an aquarium, it's also very reflective- it will actually increase the amount of usable light for your corals=you'll find that some corals will do surprisingly better than expected in spite of being partly shaded from above (when/if they become so )

it's structure is also diferent from 'pool sand',which is most likely fine silica (do a search on oolites )and i think that contributes to the differences in performance of the bed itself