Today on the BRS 160 we are going to get sand in this tank!
Hey guys my name is Ryan, welcome to another week of the BRS 160 where every week we do
our best to help you guys, members of the reefing community enjoy your tanks and find
new ways to explore the hobby.
We do that by following the set up and progression of this one hundred and sixty gallon reef
tank.
This week we are going to talk sand.
Why we use it, the different types, live verses dry, depths, best place to buy sand, how to
properly maintain your sand and what we selected for the BRS160.
In the reef tank sand provides surface area for beneficial bacteria to populate and filter
your tank.
However If you have enough live rock or some filtration media in the sump is properly not
required for that purpose.
The main reason reefers use sand is purely aesthetic appeal.
Everyone has a different idea of what looks nice but most of us prefer the tank to have
sand of some type.
The biggest difference between the different sands is size of the grains and to some degree
the color.
The Caribsea oolite is the finest grain sand and looks most similar to the picturesque
sandy beaches, most people will universally agree looks the best and it is the best sand
for sand sifting fishes like diamond back gobies.
However the fine grain oolite sand is between zero point two five and 1 millimeters and
blown around very easily with the typical flow in reef tanks.
This especially true in tanks that use constant on AC pumps.
If you use this type of pump on the sides you will typically blow all the sand out of
the center of the tank.
With pumps on the back you will blow all the sand off the front of the tank.
Even with DC controllable pumps that varied the flow will likely have some of these issues
over time as well as create dust storms in the tank.
Really the only time I would personally consider oolite is in a deeper tank with a deeper sand
bead and low flow.
The Caribsea Fiji pink is the most popular sand, probably because they add these tiny
pink chips to the sand mix.
It does add some color to the sand but it’s not super noticeable once it is in the tank.
It’s also a bit larger than the oolite with an average size of zero point five to one
point five millimeters.
However it does still blow around fairly easily.
The Caribsea special grade reef is our second most popular probably it’s the best compromise
between that attractive small grain look and more likely to stay put in the tank.
With an average grain size of one to two millimeters it’s missing those smaller grains that are
blown around so easily.
If you are looking for something that is more likely to stay put in the tank regardless
of how high the flow is in your tank something like the Caribsea Florida crushed coral which
is two and a half to five millimeters might be your best bet.
However this large grain is not a good option for some fish which like to filter feed in
the tank.
Another option somewhere in the middle of all this is the oceans direct original grade
which has a really wide range of sand grains with zero point two five millimeters all the
way up to six and a half millimeters.
I find it to be somewhat like if you have mixed oolite or Fiji pink with the crushed
coral.
It tends to separate out with the smaller gains in lower flow areas but the entire surface
of the bottom of the tank will likely stay covered in most cases.
Outside of size there are a couple color options as well with the pink flakes I mentioned in
the Fiji pink but also options like the Hawaiian black.
Black has an interesting look but not as popular, probably because the gain size is petty large
and doesn't have the same natural look and buffering properties of the typical calcium
carbonate based sands we have been talking about.
Once you have selected the right size and color sand comes in two forms live and dry.
Dry sand is as it sounds dry sand void of any type of life.
Live sand comes with beneficial bacteria which will help populate your tank and filter it.
There is some debate on how valuable this is but end of the day they cost about the
same in many cases so it’s kind of a moot point.
Most of us would prefer to use the live sand given the opportunity.
There are a couple different approaches to offering live sand.
The Caribsea Aragalive is actually sand which has been dried and sifted to create those
very tight windows of different size gains within the different options as well as remove
any debris that might be in the sand.
After sifting it is bagged in water and a dormant bacterium is added to the bag which
will become active once it is added to the tank.
For that reason it important not to rinse the sand or discard the water in the bag if
you want to maximize the live effect within the sand.
The oceans direct takes a different approach.
This sand is not dried so it can be sifted and the reason why there is such a large range
of sand gain sizes in their original grade.
It is also shipped damp but there is no water in the bag and they use a special breathable
plastic bag.
This combination allows them to maintain the natural bacteria from the ocean which is obviously
preferable.
They also say this method preserves over a thousand times as much bacteria as other preservation
methods.
Other than the less predictable grain size associated with the original grade the only
complaint I commonly hear is how long it takes to settle out.
While the sifted Aragalive often settles out in hours the original grade can take days
before the initial cloud clears.
Next question is how much and how deep.
The most common range is anywhere from a half inch to two inches.
For the most part this is really just a balance between aesthetics and the sand becoming a
nutrient sink.
Shallow sand beds a low as half an inch are popular because it is really easy to maintain
the sand and keep it clean.
A couple and sifting fish might even be enough.
However it’s a lot easier for bare spots to appear in these shallow sand beds.
Sand beds as deep as two inches sometimes look nicer and much more difficult to create
bare spots from strong flow however most reefers find sand to be a huge nutrient sink and the
reason most reefers would never go beyond two inches.
The sand is just a place where all of the tank debris settles out and often just full
of unwanted nutrients.
If you end up on the deeper side you are going to have to put more effort into cleaning the
sand with your maintenance schedule.
I think a one inch sand bed is a pretty good compromise.
It’s fairly easy to keep clean and will likely keep the bottom of the tank covered.
If not you can always adjust the flow or add more sand later.
To identify how much sand you need there are handy calculators on places like reef central
and I wouldn't be suppressed if you found one on our site in the near future.
It depends a bit on the type of sand you buy but in general 10 pounds of sand will cover
a one square foot.
So a two by four foot tank like a one twenty would have eight square feet and require around
eighty pounds of sand.
Sand isn't really cheap so where is the best place to buy sand?
If you are looking for the small grain oolite and don't mind that it blows around or have
a low flow tank I would do a quick search for bulk sand from the Bahamas because there
are some online vendors that sell that type of sand for cheap.
Note that what you are getting is truly bulk sand that likely hasn't been processed in
any way.
You might have to use some type of strainer to remove the smallest particles for the average
reef tank.
Beyond that sand is not a very expensive item in itself it is shipping it all over the country
that costs so much.
This is best done on pallets via freight rather than individual boxes via services like UPS.
This means your local fish store probably has about the same prices and online stores
for sand and might even be less.
Most the online stores that offer free shipping are really just offering it as a courtesy
because it is not cheap to UPS heavy bags of sand around the country.
Some reefers will try and reuse sand they either have laying around from other tanks
or bought off something like craigslist.
I really don't suggest using old sand because it is just a nutrient sink and not a good
way to start new reef tank but if that is what the budget demands the best way I have
found to clean it is to throw some in a five gallon bucket and push a hose to the bottom.
This will tumble the sand, scrap off loose organics and hopefully flush it over the side.
Ten minutes with each bucket is probably suitable.
One you have the sand up and running in your tank you are absolutely going to want to maintain
it and keep it free of debris that is going to pollute the tank over time.
One method of that is some and sifting critters like diamond back gobies, crabs, nassarius
snails, and stars.
You will also have to siphon the sand at least once a month.
There are a couple siphon manufactures out there.
My personal favorite is the Python mainly because they have adaptors for basically every
sink out there.
The sink connection fitting is metal rather than plastic so it lasts longer, python systems
are guaranteed to be BPA, arsenic and lead free as well as made in the USA.
This is enough for me to select it over other options which are basically the same price.
They come in two options.
One which connects directly to the sink and one that will empty in to a bucket.
The trick with using these is you don't want to suck up sand into your sink or hose.
We just want to tumble the sand and remove all the detritus from sand that is polluting
the tank.
Easiest way to control this is to just bend the hose in your hand and use it to control
the flow rate.
This is the simplest way to really get a good cleaning out of the sand, suck up everything
without getting a ton of sand in the sink, your siphons tube or bucket.
Before we move on the last piece of all this is so reefers will completely forgo sand entire
in favor of a bare bottom tank.
Thanks makes maintenance easier, costs less to set the tank up and removes this nutrient
sink from the tank.
I am always super tempted to do this myself but end of the day I just like the look of
sand and the critters in it so I have never done a bare bottom myself.
On BRS160 we narrowed it down to two options with the oceans direct original grade because
I appreciate the concept of natural ocean bacteria, especially in a tank started with
dry rock but we ultimately selected the Caribsea special grade reef because I like the more
uniform grain sizes and lack of huge six millimeter particles.
This tank has is six feet by two and has a total of twelve square feet to cover so we
used six twenty pound bags.
Notice we added the sand after the rock.
This is because the rock needed to set directly on the bottom of the tank to be stable long
term.
While this isn't typically an issue on glass the phantom bottom of the reef savvy tank
makes it absolutely safe.
Once you have all the sand in the tank, add the clarifiers included in the bag and it
should clear up in hours but certainly overnight.
Just remember not to rinse the sand and use the water in the bag because this is where
a lot of the dormant bacteria are.
We are now ready to start cycling the tank.
Next week we are going to do that exact thing, start cycling this tank.
We are going to cover the complete nitrogen cycle.
Even though most reefers have a decent grasp on this I think we are going to share something
you never heard before so hit that subscribe button.
If you are interested in learning more about the sand we talked about today check out this
link.
If you would like Dave our BRSTV editor’s day give us a quick thumbs up.
See you next week with week 13 of the BRST160 The nitrogen cycle and cycling the tank.