Oolitic/fine sand for SSB?

[kumanan]

Is it possible to use oolitic caribsea ocean direct sand in SSB setups? Ive hear that they should only be used in DSB settings because in SSB, you need to clean the top layer of every 1-2 weeks, and since oolitic/fine sand is tooo fine, it will be difficult to remove detritus without removing a lot of the sand with it...

"Re SSB 's = they MUST be manually vacuumed weekly to export detritus - so having a densely packed sandbed of fine grains; will trap the detritus on the surface; and what does sink - will start to rot. Also - when you try to manually vacuum a fine sand bed - enjoy the fact that you'll be vacuuming out ½ your sand each time too (as the grains are nearly as light as the water) - so you'll have a bare bottom tank after a few weeks."

JL Aquatics suggests that they can be used with shallow sand beds.
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/product-info.php?product_ID=cs-amaxs30

 

[kumanan]

anyone?

 

[lancer99]

I don't think what they say on the J&L site is right.

Without at least 4" of fine sand, you're unlikely to get the "power" needed to process detritus, and as per your quote, it's almost impossible to vacuum.

Plus, fine sand is a PITA if you have lots of flow.

Not that I'm against fine sand -- I'm a firm believer in DSBs and use it in all my tanks -- but I wouldn't use it for a SSB.

-R