how much sand and which one?

[tomreefer]

I have a 40 gallon breeder. I am guessing I want like 2" of sand bed anymore can cause problems correct? Which sand? Reef Rocks sand any good? I like a white color.

 

[shesacharmer]

I have a three inch sand bed because that's what came with my tank and I didn't know the difference. Now if I were starting again I would have 1-2" of medium grain sand (NOT sugar fine!). Don't get play sand. If you can get a cupful of sand from someone you know that's all you need to seed your new sandbed.

 

[thegrun]

You can use fine grained sand (commonly referred to as sugar or oolite sand) on lower flow fish only systems where you only need about 20 times the display tank in GPH water flow. For reef tanks where you want 30 times your DT in flow for soft corals or 40 times+ for SPS coral, the finer grained sands get blown all over the place, so most of us use a courser sand (I like CaribSea Special Grade). To determine how much sand you need to purchase take the width and length of your tank in inches and multiply those two numbers together and then multiply that number by the inches of sand you want (2" is a good depth). Divide that number by 20 and you get the approximate dry weight of sand needed.
36x16x2=57 pounds of sand.

 

[tomreefer]

Caribsea Special grade looks like around $60 from big als for 55lbs.. Hows is this compared to reef rocks sand?

 

[Gunsnroses]

I'm using the Special Grade Reef Sand in my 180g. Depth ranges from 2 to 3 inches. It's not as pretty as the sugar sized stuff, but it stays put as long as your not blasting the surface with your powerheads.