Need advice on sand for 300 Gallon

[lemadl]

I am taking receipt of a 300 Gallon tank tomorrow which will house corals and a few fish. The guy I am buying it from has offered to "give" me 3 five gallon buckets of professionally cleaned beach sand (Costa Rica, Caribbean beach sand)......By the way, I live in Costa Rica.

The sand is medium sized grain, not fine like Argonite. I have read a few contradicting things and need your help.

I have read:-

1. Argonite is great, clearly the best.

2. Argonite will eventually get clogged with ditirus (sp?) because of its small granular size, and become a haven for trapped nitrates, ammonia, the bad kind of bacteria.

I have also read:-

3. Natural Beach Sand (the large granual size) is great, because it is natural calcium and will leach into the tank.

4. Natural Beach Sand ( large granuals) will not get as clogged, and allows polutants to enter the water volume, making the pollutants more likely to be skimmed.

5. Natural Beach sand is bad. Avoid using it as it can trap ditirus (sp?)

I am confused, because there are so many contradictions.

Your help in helping me make a decision will be most appreciated.

 

[bryanth73]

bare bottem reefers will bash me for this but a natural reef has sand I like it and will never go bare bottom ditritus can be an issue but if you make a plenum or even clean the top layer you will get years out of a healthy sandbed. Many people that went bare are starting to go back to sand either for looks or to stabilize ph. Just my humble mortal opinion

 

[reefbuzz]

Depending on how far away you are from major ports, etc. you can use the sand after a few weeks in QT on a skimmer with water changes. If the grain size is smaller, all the better, as larger grains will accumulate detritus without the necessary anerobic denitrifying bacteria, and will need to be siphoned regularly. Go with 0.5 - 6 inches, depending on your purposed. Read threads on DSBs.

 

[jacob30]

If I had access to some nice beach /surf sand in Costa Rica I would definitely be using it. If you can add the sand to the tank and let it sit for 1.5 months with no fish or corals even better.

Do it!

 

[zmovegolf]

What would be the best depth for larger grain sand beds?

 

[jacob30]

Sand grains sort according to size. Typically where there is a net sand export from an area there are larger sand grains. It is not so much based on depth as it is on water movement in a given area: ie Longshore currents, tidal flow, wave action etc. It has been a while since I studied this but that is basically what I remember about sorting.

 

[reefbuzz]

Try to get as fine of sand as possible. Larger grain sandbeds, as in >2mm, increase the potential for trouble down the road as nutrients collect between larger grains.