Does size really matter??

bguile

bguile

Premium Member
I was at my LFS yesterday picking up substrate for my new tank and a few other items. I noticed on the Sugar sized Carib-Sea Aragonite bag it has the marking that says "Ideal for shallow beds and reef tank bottom cover". It looked like I had taken the last two bags so as I was looking around for more I found another bag of the slightly larger Aragamax Select that has a label that says "Ideal for deep sand beds....". Does it really make a difference as to which size to use to make the DSB more effective?? I can understand that the slightly larger sand (NOT CC) would allow for less restrictive oxygen exchange at the bottom of the sandbed but is that necessarily what we want??
 
in theory, the sugar size oolitic sand is uniform in texture and so allows an easier exchange/dispersal for deeper beds. look up some of the DSB threads, there is quite a bit of discussion on it.
 
i think another approach is to find pics of tanks that have each and the age of the tanks. that'll give you a good idea of which to use.
 
I go for the medium size stuff... .5-1mm usually. The sugar stuff is too small IME. I tried it, and its just too light, small, fluffy, etc. IT gets blown around too easily, easily gets mulm mixed in which is impossible to clean then (the mulm density is similar to the sugar stuff, so in order to clean, you have to just remove it all). It also packs too dense to breathe, so rather than a DSB with less sand, you end up with pockets of green/black deposits developing, and acids which clump the sand together. The danger is also that since the stuff is so light, and these denitrification areas are so much closer to the surface, any ole' critter in the sand bed like a snail or hermit can unearth them and release toxins into the tank. Oolitic also doesnt dissolve in seawater as easily as crushed coral or even arag, so it doesnt buffer too well.

Id stay away from the stuff. My favorite stuff is the grain size that Nature's Ocean Live Sand usually comes with. CaribSea makes the same stuff. Its just right, but not so light it blows around.
 
Smaller grain size = more surface area for bacterial colonization. I like mixing mostly oolitic sand with a small amount of larger grain size sand (which naturally stays on the surface because it is less dense.) I have about 8" of oolitic in my RDSB and 2" of mixed aragonite (1-2mm) on top to limit sand movement. This probably won't work as well in tank due to biological activity though.
 
Good idea. I may do that in my display. I am only doing a DSB in my refugium so I guess that makes it an RDSB which will only be seen by me so no need for the aesthetics. I think mixing the two in the display will give the sandbed a more natural look. I may even find a handful of CC or other sand "debris" since I plan on having a lot of open areas.
 
Smaller grain size does mean more surface area, but when you get that small, it also means poor water circulation. I have never seen a sand, other than silica, suffer from poor circulation as much as that sugar arag.
 
have any of you ever tried a refugium with no sand at all? I was considering just having Live Rock, chaeto, and maybe aiptasia in my refugium.
 
I use the RDSB more for nitrite/nitrate reduction than anything else. If your protein skimming and live rock can handle the waste without assistance then you don't really need the sand IMHO.
 
I see where you are coming from, and 50% of me agrees with that. But the other 50%... I mean, unless you experience all the detritus collecting on the rocks like I did (the bottom is too turbulent/cant catch anything, but the rocks which are nice and rough with holes all over sure do resemble sand in that respect)... so its not really a huge factor. What are you going to do, vacuum all your rocks then?

Or, if that doesnt happen, and instead you end up with detritus on the bottom rather than in the rock, now it is out in the open, you know? It has settled, and it isnt being 'processed' by anything because its not in any sort of biological filter medium. It will rot out in the open, ammonia, etc. So how is the rock able to handle that then if it cant get to it? The sand acts as a sink, or storage area, of sorts. As long as it doesnt get full (which DSB's tend to and then leak organics back into the water), it provides a place where the hard particulate organic matter can get processed.

Unless you are able to keep it off the bottom all together, and extract it all via skimmer or something. All I know is that if you cant get it all out, and its in the system somewhere, I would rather have it on its way into the sand than floating around, clogging my rock, or laying on a bare bottom. Sand provides an environment for nutrient processing on the bottom where it tends to build up, rocks dont. I would go so far as to say I would rather have all sand, and no rock than the other way around. FWIW, even if your detritus gets into the LR, the rock is ridgid. Sand moves around, and as detritus gets worked into it, the sand can compact around it, providing a great rock to detritus interface area that a rock cant. Its like comparing a fluidized bed filter to a ridgid foam screen for biological filtration.

And I can easily clean my sand. Cant say the same for rock.

Just another perspective. I can completely understand the 'control' and appeal of a BB tank though.

On another note, to address the original question... as far as hard particulate extraction, my new ATB skimmer can pull solid chunks of matter out of the water better than anything I have ever used before. It has literally skimmed the mulm out of my sump, and today I even found bits of carbon from the carbon chamber (I shook my carbon chamber yesterday and bits fell out and onto the sump bottom) in the collection cup.

So for those looking for something that can skim solids out very well... this thing works the best of what I have used do far.
 
ATB 'Small' Cone Pan Skimmer is the one I mentioned. I get more chunks of crap in my cup than ever. It actually pulled the mulm out of my sump in the chamber it sits in.
 
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