Caribsea Bahama Oolite in mixed reef tank (1 Viewer)

[nightster]

So I bought 100lbs of this Bahama oolite sand and didn't realize how small the grains were. I plan on setting up a mixed reef tank with most of the flow in the upper 1/3 of tank. Am I going to have a problem getting it to stay and not blow around? I need about 40 more pounds of sand to reach my desired depth and was thinking about capping it with special grade to make up for the small grain size of the oolite. Should I just bite the bullet and buy 60-80 pounds of special grade and just mix the 2? Or will I be alright with 100 pounds of oolite and 40 or so of special grade? Never used oolite so I don't know what to expect when it comes to how much flow it takes to move it. I plan on having a sand sifter in the tank also and don't want sand suspended in the water column too long.

 

[PorpoiseHork]

The Bahama oolite has really tiny grains, something around .25-1mm in size, so it'll get blown around fairly easily. Special grade is a little better at 1-2mm but still will get blown around if the flow is too high. If you don't mind larger grains the Natural Reef grade is fairly nice at 3-5mm. There's smaller grains in there, and minimal silt when first starting up. It's small enough that sand sifters can easily move around in it, but large enough that it won't get blown around that much in higher flow. I used a single 15# bag of that for my Nuvo 20 build and it put a nice 1" deep bed across the tank.

 

[Reefahholic]

Yeah, that is almost like sugar. I’d return it and get something bigger like Fiji Pink.

 

[Reefahholic]

I’d go with 2mm or larger.

For reference, look at this picture below. The Aragasnow is 0.5mm which is basically sugar size and the oolite that you picked is even smaller. I’ve ran ReefFlakes in several tanks and it’s 3.5mm. Doesn’t blow much at all. If you wanna have decent flow you need 2-3mm size or it’s gonna blow around.

 

[nightster]

I’d go with 2mm or larger.

For reference, look at this picture below. The Aragasnow is 0.5mm which is basically sugar size and the oolite that you picked is even smaller. I’ve ran ReefFlakes in several tanks and it’s 3.5mm. Doesn’t blow much at all. If you wanna have decent flow you need 2-3mm size or it’s gonna blow around.

Sand sifters still sift 2-3mm?

 

[Reefahholic]

Sand sifters still sift 2-3mm?

I’d say around 2 would be better, but I’ve seen gobies sift some of the larger grain sizes.

 

[PorpoiseHork]

The Caribsea Natural Reef is probably the best all around mix for sand sifters, gobies and pistol shrimp



It's normally mostly white with some color variances, but mine is on the trailing end of a diatom/dino bloom.

Gotta love new tank issues..

 

[Reefahholic]

The Caribsea Natural Reef is probably the best all around mix for sand sifters, gobies and pistol shrimp



It's normally mostly white with some color variances, but mine is on the trailing end of a diatom/dino bloom.

Gotta love new tank issues..

I don't know if I would agree with that. It's 3.0 to 5.0mm. That's very large for sand sifters. They tend to do better in smaller substrates around 2mm and under. Nice tank though! That stuff on top is 5mm easy. Imagine that running through a gobies gills!! He's not gonna sift that much.

 

[PorpoiseHork]

True, they do, but on my first SW tank I ran this same sand and had a diamond goby that would spit out the larger pieces after sifting the rest. For some reason I had it in my head that we were talking about a sand sifting starfish not a goby. Another option is Bimini Pink, which has a grain size of 0.2 - 2.2 mm. It's right in line with goby's and can handle a fair bit of flow before getting blown around. So should be good in a softy/lps tank.

@nightster If you do get a diamond sifting goby, you won't want to keep any corals on the sand bed. The goby will almost certainly pick up sand from across the tank, go over to the coral on the bed hover right over it and sift it dumping sand all over it. I the goby I had kept doing this to a beautiful long tentacle plate coral that I had. No matter where I moved the coral that fish would go over to it and sift sand on top of it. Stressed the coral out so much that it died within a couple of days.

 

[nightster]

Ordered 2 40lb bags off PetSmart today. Gonna use some of the oolite on the bottom and cap it with this. Hopefully I can get my 125g cycling soon. Finally got it moved inside after building the stand. I'm an beginner when it comes to carpentry, it turned out ok.


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[TooMuchDog]

Ordered 2 40lb bags off PetSmart today. Gonna use some of the oolite on the bottom and cap it with this. Hopefully I can get my 125g cycling soon. Finally got it moved inside after building the stand. I'm an beginner when it comes to carpentry, it turned out ok.


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Stand looks good! I have a hood on mine as well even though it's out of style apparently I still like it.

 

[nightster]

Stand looks good! I have a hood on mine as well even though it's out of style apparently I still like it.

Thanks! I did it bc I didn't want light spillage in my living room. My tank isn't rimless either so there's that too lol.

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[TooMuchDog]

Thanks! I did it bc I didn't want light spillage in my living room. My tank isn't rimless either so there's that too lol.

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Sounds like the exact reasons I like mine. My t5 fixture fits in it perfectly but just beware, it holds in heat like crazy. I attached a desk fan to the back of my tank to blow air through and it's fixed that problem

 

[nightster]

Sounds like the exact reasons I like mine. My t5 fixture fits in it perfectly but just beware, it holds in heat like crazy. I attached a desk fan to the back of my tank to blow air through and it's fixed that problem

Yea I have some holes drilled to mount computer fans for circulation.

 

[Reefahholic]

Thanks! I did it bc I didn't want light spillage in my living room. My tank isn't rimless either so there's that too lol.

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Looks pretty good to me!

 

[Reefahholic]