Oolite sand

[joeysreef]

New to the forum, have posted in hydra 26 HD lighting thread and welcome thread so far.

I have been reading about oolite in this forum for a long time and yes I still bought it and put it in my new cycling 75 gal sw tank.

I love it appearance wise, and I'm trying to be patient till it gets a film on top to stop the poofiness but honestly I'm semi thinking about taking it out and putting Fiji pink lol. Just came for some reassurance that it will stop.

Set up tank December 15th. First put rock then sand then sw. Put the water in slowly on top of the empty live sand bags. Expecting ultra cloudiness and wasn't disappointed. It settled in a few days. Then I added some more live rock and poofed it up again It settled. Then today I ever so gently turkey basted off the rocks from the fine layer of silt. Poof again.

It will eventually stop poofing right?

I wanted it cause I really like the gobies and wanted them to have nice fine sand to sift thru. Lol silly I know. Plus I love the white look

New to sw tanks. Started with a nuvo 16 in 2013. That cracked in early 2014 diagonally down the side in middle of night. Saved everything and has then in a way too small ten gal qt sw tank. Then set up and cycled a 20 long for them. Silly cause of course not big enough. So now cycling my 75 for them.

New to reefing and sw so doing sumpless. Have a koralia 1500 pointed up due to crazy sand , a aquaclear 110 hob running chemipure elite, purigen and filter floss, heater and a eshopps psk 75 hob skimmer that I took off the 20 long.

Need a bigger skimmer I'm sure. And will move over the mp10 from the 20 long unknown if the one koralia and the mp10 will be enough. I added up the gph on all things I think :

Koralia 1500 gph
Ac110 500 gph
Eshopps skimmer 75 357 gph

So that's 2357 gph? Right?
Then when I add the mp10?

Total rookie here. Looking forward to sand not poofing and moving my fish over in a few weeks / mos when cycle done

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Oolite sand is "poofy" Read this link. The word oolite is derived from a Greek word for fish roe and it looks like a bunch of small round balls basically, its all in the link

http://www.sandatlas.org/oolite/

 

[shifty51008]

While that sand looks great it can be a pain as it blows everywhere, i started out with it and later went to special grade reef sand and never looked back. Great size, doesnt blow around and gobies love it.

 

[whosurcaddie]

While that sand looks great it can be a pain as it blows everywhere, i started out with it and later went to special grade reef sand and never looked back. Great size, doesnt blow around and gobies love it.

+1 Its just too small.

 

[kmbyrnes]

I love the look of oolite. and I figured since a FOWLR doesn't need as much flow, I would try it. After 3 months, I still had consistently cloudy water, any fish that got near the sand caused a blizzard and I was considering changing it out. Then I got involved in my 350 build and kind of let the 125 go on autopilot.
So now its been 6 months, and finally the water is crystal clear. I want to transition this tank to a reef, so I am experimenting with high flow power heads.
If they don't cause too much stir, I'll keep it. If not it, will be special grade reef sand for this tank as well. I have have used it in all my other tanks with great success. And my burrowing wrasses love it!

It will eventually settle down, but may it take months, during which your tank will not be crystal clear. I used the special grade reef sand in the 350 and it was beautiful just 3 days after adding sand.

 

[billdogg]

I use sugar fine sand and like it a lot. Does it blow around some? Sure. So does sand in the ocean. It will eventually settle down. Mine started out as a fairly even 2-3" layer. It is now thin in places, deep in others. The wrasses love the deep parts to hide/sleep in. The snails and other CUC couldn't care less - they plow through it all and keep it clean for me.

 

[joeysreef]

Thanks so much guys for all your input. I will try being more patient

 

[thegrun]

For a fish only tank you do not need that much flow and should eventually get it to mostly stay in place. If you are planning on keeping corals and need more flow, you can put a 1/2" layer of special grade reef sand on top of the oolite sand too keep it in place.

 

[crj900]

I ordered two 40lb bags of ocean direct live sand for my 75 gallon. One bag split open during shipping and the seller sent me a new bag for free. I was able to inspect the sand of the open damaged bag without having to open the other two bags I paid for.

I decided the sand it too fine and it is really not wet or live like advertised. I'm exchanging the sand for 80lbs of special grade. The seller is paying for the return shipping on the ocean direct. I will only be charged for the small price difference between the ocean direct and special grade.

I love the look of the finer sand, but the special grade is what most people use and won't blow around. I think my tank will be healthier long term with more flow and that's more important to me than the look of nice sand.

 

[joeysreef]

I am definitely going to have some corals down the road. I like the mushrooms and Xenia and candy cane corals and the hammers so far. I'd like to have a rise bubble tip for my clowns but am kind of scared of them traveling, so am hoping they will host in Xenia. Lol. I have hydra 26 HD s on the tank

 

[joeysreef]

I don't know if I should keep this here under oolite or make a new thread

Question on early diatoms in cycle.

So I'm upgrading from a 20 long to a 75 gal. Set up the 75 on Dec 15th
"Live" sand (However live it is I know) Carib sea oolite , two inch bed, 40 lbs approx live cured "real reef" rock brand , 20 lbs approx BRS dry reef saver tock, left over from 20 long orig set up

So put rock then sand then water, IO brand. Added bio spira. Ghost fed every other day about a smidge of marine flakes. Salinity 1.026. Two Hydra26 HD led lights, just on very low blue spectrum, not many hrs. Eshopps hob skimmer. Koralia 1500 pointed up cause my oolite. AC 110 hob w carbon, purigen and filter floss and a heater No sump

I didn't test the first week at all. I should have. Test results from last few days:

Dec 24th & Dec 26th and Dec 27th all same results

A 0
NI 0
Ph 8
NA 0-5

So I had diatoms on the sand and rocks starting the 24th , is what prompted me to start testing.

That's not possible right? Cause I thought if I had 1/3 dry rocks in it would take a long time to cycle? I'm a little confused.

I need to do the other tests for you guys but they're a little confusing cause it's the Red Sea ones. For calcium alk mag etc. I will do them on days off

What do you think? Diatoms? Wow. Should I be doing CUC ? Or leave it?

 

[joeysreef]

I forget to add , part of initial water was twenty gals of NSW from petco. It was on sale. Figured it couldn't hurt Couldn't figure out how to edit the above post to add this info

 

[Feegler]

Putting Special Grade Reef Sand over Oolite Sand

Putting Special Grade Reef Sand over Oolite Sand

While that sand looks great it can be a pain as it blows everywhere, i started out with it and later went to special grade reef sand and never looked back. Great size, doesnt blow around and gobies love it.

Hey! I know this post was about 8 years again but if youre still on here, Im having the same issues and need to change to special grade reef sand. I currently have 60 lbs of Oolite sand in my tank which i started 3 months ago.

Should I remove all Oolite sand or can I add the reef grade on top of the Oolite to give me a deeper sand bed that wont blow around.

Also, If i keep the Oolite sand in there, will i just suck it back on the top when i am cleaning the sandbed?

Anything would help!