This is great - BUT ATI actually has a sand that is medium grain size but heavier than normal sand so it doesn't blow around. It's dry and definitely worth considering - BRS should add it in. I'm also worried if the Oceans Direct comes from the Caribbean with that bacteria that's killing LPS there at the moment - I don't think it matters but I haven't heard and it's in the back of my mind ;)
I've used the arag alive special grade a lot, I've also tried fine oolite sand and some coarser crushed aragonite. At the moment I'm using special grade but I don't like it very much anymore and want to chance to something coarse again. I'll explain why and maybe there is an aspect, that hasn't been covered in the video. The main reason why the idea of changing the substrate got into my head again tight now is: snails. I'm not sure if I'm the only one or if I'm imagining things, but I think all kinds of turbo snails and also stomatella snails are having a very hard time with sand, even the special grade, because it's too fine for them. Why do I think it is too fine? Well, the stomatella literally are repelled by it. They might be on a reef rock, running around and eating, but when they encounter the border between rock an sand, they absolutely will not go onto the sand. And when they have an accident an fall onto it, they will bee-line to the closest rock surface. I think this behavior is because sand is pretty deadly to them. If they are on the sand, they only stick to the the top most grains, which are not weighty enough to keep them from falling over or getting blown over. Even with their tiny shell, they don't seem to be able to turn themselves upright and get to safety. The same seems to happen to various turbo snails. Of course there are snails that can deal with the sand, like conchs, nassarius and olive snails. These are engineered for sand sifting, but they are not your usual algae clean up crew, they are more for cleaning up bigger food and meaty bits. Well, the conch does eat algae, but not on your reef. So I guess I want to give them snails something to hold onto. My experience with the coarser (5 mm) crushed aragonite was, that it trapped detritus and siphoning it out of there was a lot harder than with sand. But I think if I go even bigger, it might actually be easier. Flow might even get into there or you might "flow it out" with a turkey baster or small pump. Will probably cost some more roller mat, but meh. With the flow hopefully getting in there, there might be benefits vs. sand in therms of biologically active surface. Flow doesn't get very deep into sand and also sand isn't porous. Crushed coral can be very porous, so that's a secondary thought I had. The crushed aragonite I used in the past wasn't porous at all. It was literally mined and crushes from rock. I'm a bit scared about upsetting the biology in the tank by changing the substrate, even if I did it in steps over a longer time, since I don't think the established spaghetti worms will like coarse substrate, but we'll see. Maybe the tiny brittle stars, that could probably fill in their role in the detritus chain will populate from the reef into the gravel. These also don't seem to like flat sand. Oh, nearly forgot: with they way I like to set up my Vortechs the special grade is prone to be blown away, even though it's not an SPS tank. So the thing about Vortechs is, that they can only be perpendicular to the glass pane you put them on. Most people put their pumps in the upper third of the tank. For me, I have a peninsula scape with both pumps an the same, small pane on both sides of the reef. They create an alternating U-flow around the scape. If I don't put them exactly at half the height of the water column, they will add a vertical component to the flow. If they are placed higher, the "prime" end of the aquarium will have a down draft, which I don't find very appealing and also sweeper tentacles going down is a bit of a problem. But putting the pumps at practically 50 % height of the aquarium with no way to tilt the flow upwards, leads to blown away sand. I did alleviate it a bit by 3D printing deflection surfaces for the pump heads, but it makes them a lot longer and doesn't really work too well. So that's another reason for me to try bigger, heavier grains again.
Does special grade Carib Sea still comes with the bio-magnet clarifier on the side or mixed in? I ordered a bag and I could not fin it. the bag says "contains bio-magnet clarifier"
does fiji pink sand cause fog in the water? i want to replace the sand for my starfish and goby fish. I used sand that was quite coarse and it slipped a lot of detritus at the bottom. my starfish and goby can't play there.
For most reefers, we would suggest the special grade. It's a great balance because it looks like a natural sand bed and good for sand sifters, but is still large enough so that it won't blow around like crazy.
Hi want to ask i have bought sands for freshwater. May I know can i use the freshwater sands in salt water? After i bought the sands i kind of really interested in salt water fish instead, but dont want to waste my freshwater sands which i already bought for 10kg total.😅
We would suggest an aragonite based substrate. I'm not sure what cichlid sand is made of, but that's something to check. That said, if you're starting a saltwater aquarium, just use the right tool for the job and go with a substrate specifically meant for our purpose.
The words "special grade" does not appear in any of these images, not on the bags of Ocean Direct and Arag-alive that I can find in stores. Nor does the grain size for that matter. How would I know which bag is the "special grade"?
@@BRStv Reef sand, yes. But I looked high and low for Ocean Direct or Arag-alive, both online and at the LFS and no where do the words "Special Grade" appear, even if you google images. To make matters worse, even Caribsea's website mentions "Special Grade" right alongside an image that does NOT have those words anywhere on the bag. It's ... bizarre.
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@@Evanburdon new stuff yea, sand doesn’t change, sand is sand, if you got back few months you see them saying the same thing over and over again. Don’t get me I like them, just don’t the repeating of the same topic. When nothing really changed .
