Oolitic Aragonite? Pro's & Con's?

[DAvis]

Thanks for all you help with the Florida LR, I think I'm going with 50lbs or that for my 28 gallon cube. I think I want to get aragonite oolitic fine sand. For 2 - 3" depth, I probably need, what, 30 lbs? I think I don't need live sand, because of the very active LR I will be getting. Tank is brand new, nothing in it, and won't be for a while, just sand and rock.

I think oolitic sand is good for denitrification. Anything else good or bad? Not sure if I will have any sand sifting fish, all depends on if they are tank bred (here we go!).
Thanks!
DAvis

 

[yote]

Thats the sand I got in my tank.
The only drawback with it,is when you get a lot of flow,the sands so lite that it dont take much to blow it around.Other than that,its good sand.
And I think 30lbs should about do it for your tank.

 

[Melosu58]

That`s why I went with a bigger grain because with alot of flow the sand will be moving around.

 

[DAvis]

Never thought of that yote and Mike. The 28g cube is equipped with two Accela 266gph powerheads alternating with a wavemaker. Might that be too turbulent for the oolitic sand, What's the next, fine? medium? I Don't want to make a snow capped reef!
Can Goby's play in courser sand? (that's a whole lotta questions!)

 

[yote]

You may have to play around with the flow some,but I don't think you'll have that big a problem with the sand blowing around.The rock will slow it way down in places,and intensify it in others.
If the flows moving the sand to much,you can always adjust the pumps.
But there are courser grades of sand to that will work just as good. Fine or medium will work just as good.The grains are just a tab bigger and heavier.Just dont go with crushed coral.That stuff just causes problems.

 

[KidJ57]

:frustrat: Ninja-ed again by yote...maybe if I just say "+1 Yote" no one will notice :ugh: :lol:

You should be fine with those powerheads, you'll just keep them and point them a little higher/away from the sand. I've got a Rio 2500 (used as power head till I fix my protein skimmer) and a K3 in my 58 with the fine stuff and while the sand does get shifted, it kind of gives the substrate this natural current-swept look. Every so often I have adjusted the k3 and accidentally pointed it at the sand and the stuff went flying, but it settles back down eventually.

 

[dcantucson]

I would also recommend the larger grain. Sugar sized sand in a pain sometimes.

 

[felix27]

just started up my new 58 gal. with the oolithic sand, any recommendations for clearing the water up fast?? been running a powerfilter only but doesnt seem to be doing much, 2 days in and you can only see about a inch into the tank

 

[yote]

About all you can do is wait it out and let it clear up on its own.

 

[Ted]

just started up my new 58 gal. with the oolithic sand, any recommendations for clearing the water up fast?? been running a powerfilter only but doesnt seem to be doing much, 2 days in and you can only see about a inch into the tank

When I changed my cc to sand I had 4 power filters around the tank it still took 48 hours to get it to clear.

 

[KidJ57]

The first "clearing" is always the worst; mine will cloud up again from time to time if I start moving the rocks around but then it's cleared by the next day typically.

 

[Bifferwine]

It will usually take several days, no matter what you do.

 

[DAvis]

Thanks all! I decided to go with the Aragamax sugar-sized 'oolitic' sand. I am in no hurry (exceptin' getting started!), so I can wait for it to clear. I don't suppose you can really rinse this sand! Probably makes handing it worse!

All your collective comments were very helpful!

 

[yote]

If you buy dry sand,then yeah,rinse the crap out of it to get all the dust out.