All my sand is gone, now what?

[aerius007]

So yesterday I went through the hellish process of removing all of the sand in my tank. What a job!!! Basically all of my corals are on a frag rack, with the exception of the ones attached to rock. I had to rip everything apart, siphon out the sand, of course the siphon gets clogged every 3 seconds. What I ended up doing was taking my Magnum 350, bought an extra long hose, and used that to get the sand. At least that way I didnt drain all of my water out of the tank, but I did have to rinse the magnum a bunch.

So right now I have about 120lbs in my tank, and another 100lbs that was sitting in bleach water to cooking. Once I rinse the bleach off of the dead "live rock" I will put everything back together.

The reason I took out the sand is because I had a couple of fish that would kick it up and I always had that snowglobe thing going. So now what? I dont plan on going BB, but I dont want fine sand again. I also dont want florida crushed coral because its too big. TJ used the fiji pink and likes it, any other suggestions before I move forward?

And if there is anybody here with a talent for aquascaping let me know, I SUCK AT IT. I would be willing to trade pizza, beer and some frags for the help. Was thinking of doing acrylic rods, or plastic hangers to hold everything together. My rocks cannot touch any glass, there is no back wall to this tank, its viewed from both sides.

Thanks

 

[Tswifty]

Oh real quick... I just saw you said fish were kicking up your sand. I have no sifting or sand happy fish in my tank. I have 2 shrimpgobies, but they just burrow once. So while the Fiji Pink isn't blown around by the VorTech... I'm not sure if some sand sifting livestock would cause problems or not.

Sean (DiscoReefRover) has some sifters in his tank, and used a slightly larger grain sand. His guys can sift the heck out of it, and no dust is produced in the tank. I would recommend shooting him a PM to see what type he used. He'd also be a good guy to talk to about the acrylic rods, as that is how his current rock work is held together.

 

[cveverly]

I bought Estes white marine sand and love the size. It will drift with a strong current but it will not blow all over the tank. It is very clean, I just dumped it in the tank and no cloud at all. My other tank uses Estes black marine sand and I had the same result with it.

 

[aerius007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14791813#post14791813 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tswifty
So while the Fiji Pink isn't blown around by the VorTech... I'm not sure if some sand sifting livestock would cause problems or not.

Maybe I need to get rid of the watchman goby, but I know Ive seen them in a million tanks. He was the worst culpret for stirring things up.

 

[MeVsTheWorld]

Caribsea Special Grade reef is what I have, looks huge in pics, but is still nice and sandy, doesn't blow around. The indo-pacific black looks cool too.

http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/aragalive.html

 

[Jeff Trout]

I use figi pink also.I have a orange spotted gobie.I dont have a ton of flow tho.

 

[DiscoReefRover]

My watchman has never stirred up a single grain ....my sleeper goby on the other hand thats all he does and I have no sand storm even with two 6105's rockin a wave in a 4 fooot tank !!!!carib sea reef grade sand all the way..has a nice mix of grain and once setled it will not make a mess

 

[ronald.vaughn]

Aerius007, just wondering how much bleach did you use when dosing your rock? Do you have exact measurements or did you go a cap full to every gallon? Just wondering cause I have some old rock and thinking about treating it just so there will be surprises the day I do finally use it.

 

[aerius007]

I didnt use much bleach, but didnt measure. I figured a little would go a long way, more of a precaution than anything.

 

[aznnutty]

all this talk about sand, does anyone have any for sale? or know where i can get some for cheap?

 

[Tswifty]

.

 

[aerius007]

I'm torn between the fiji pink and the reef special grade. The smallest grain in the special is twice as large as in the fiji pink, the larger grains are the same. So right now, advantage special reef. I really dont want stuff drifting around anymore.