Killer substrate

[all-apologies]

Anyone have any opions on good quality substrate for a reef tank. As of now i have the pretty lame crushed coral. I was thinking of something a little less coarse, like a sugar fine.

Any opinions/sucess stories??

Thanks--

 

[PatrickJ]

I like sugar fine. Food sits on top the sand or anything else sits ontop. That way you can siphone it out. Just as nice as a Bare Bottom, but the great benefit of the sand bed.

Sugar fine. My vote for you.

 

[all-apologies]

Thanks much.

Is it hard to siphon?

 

[ACBlinky]

I like Bahamas Oolite. It's very fine, and has the nicest look of any sand I've tried. I wouldn't worry about siphoning; as long as you have enough critters to clean the sand it pretty much takes care of itself. I don't touch the SSB in my 21g at all, I let the pistol shrimp, worms, pods, cerith and nassarius snails do all the work .

 

[PatrickJ]

he speaks the truth.

 

[all-apologies]

Sweet-
how many snails and stuff do you guys have.

I've got a 125 that i need to fill up with a clean up crew. Anyone know a good place to get a crew??

 

[PatrickJ]

I have like 70 snails, 6 star fish (brittle stars), 25 hermits, 5 cucumbers.

all in a 55.

 

[all-apologies]

dang,

is all of that fairly expensive??

My lfs prices are ridiculous.

 

[ACBlinky]

I have one tiger pistol shrimp, 13 nassarius, 2 ceriths and seven hermits (5 Hawaiian zebra, 2 blueleg) in my 21g. Between them they keep the sand very well groomed

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8073223#post8073223 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by all-apologies
dang,

is all of that fairly expensive??

My lfs prices are ridiculous.

I've been impressed with www.etropicals.com.

My personal reccomendation for a cleanup crew in a 125 with a sandbed would be

15 nassarius snails
25 cerith snails
25 astrea
15 scarlet reef hermits
1 urchin (pincushion, tuxedo)
1 tigertail cucumber

When your stocking fish, I would also consider a sand-sifting goby, and a herbivore such as a rabbitfish or tang.

 

[IndyReefMan]

I prefer the finer grained sand as well but it can make it a little challenging if you're shooting for a lot of flow with an SPS tank. The finer the sand is, the more it will blow around in the tank.