Replacing sugar fine due to sand storm. Miniflakes heavy enough?

GroktheCube

GroktheCube

New member
Well, my sugar fine aragonite looks fantastic, but over a month in and with all my PHs set up, my rocks are white every day.

I've heard great things about the Tropic Eden substrates in general, but not that much about miniflakes specifically. In a 120 4x2x2 with ~30x turnover, would the miniflakes be big enough to avoid a snow globe effect, or would the reef flakes be a better choice? I'll eventually be stocking a goby and a couple conches, so I'd prefer to go with the smallest grain that will let me keep most of my sand on the bottom of the tank, instead of coating my rocks/plumbing/sump on a daily basis.

Lots of people say that Carbisea special grade is fine with 30x turnover, so I assume that the miniflakes would be as well given they're comparable in size, I'd just like to get a little feedback before I pay for shipping.
 
It's not so much the turnover that's an issue, but rather what pumps you're running and from where. I can have a 300gph Maxi-jet blow sand around in a 120g tank and that would only be a little over 2.5x turnover per hour, and then also make MP40's work in the same tank that would be set at 20x turnover per hour with no moving sand. Can you be more specific with your setup and what pumps you have running, etc.?
 
I have 1 Tunze 6095 controlled by an Apex set to pulse 2s on 5s off, 2 Tunze 6045s, and about 600gph entering the tank from the return split between two loc-line wide flow nozzles.

The two small (1100gph) Tunzes are positioned so that their flow collides at about the midpoint of the tank ~6" below the surface. Both also flow through the streams from the return. The big Tunze is in the middle of one of the short walls of the tank, pointed directly across at the other ~4" below the surface. None of the PHs are aimed at the sand or any glass in the lower half of the tank.

The majority of the sand being blown is from swirling, tornado like up-draft eddies that are a product of the turbulence caused by the different laminar streams colliding. It works amazingly well to keep detritus in suspension, and all the hitchhikers on the rock blow back and forth in a very natural way, but they also frequently create swirling sandy tornadoes that send my sand everywhere.

If it helps, I have the sugar sized sand mixed in with ~40lbs of your cultured live sand, and I've never seen any of that go anywhere. In several parts of the tank, it appears to be the only sand left. Just tons of dust blown into the water column.
 
I really think you'll be just fine with the Miniflakes for what you have going on with your flow. What you will probably notice is that the first 3-4 weeks the sand will move around just a little. Then once it starts getting some bacteria growth on it and it settles in it will be just fine for you.

Our cultured sand is a mix of miniflakes and a little bit of reefflakes to give you an idea. Every now and then we'll have some other sand mixed in, but that's the majority of it.
 
Thanks. If the smaller particles of your LS are miniflakes, that should definitely work for me. I expect a little movement at first, but a snow globe a month later is a bit much. I think I'll order miniflakes now, and I feel the need I'll get some reef flakes to mix in when they're available.
 
I placed my order, and got some more ESV B-ionic while I was at it to get free shipping out of the deal! Thanks for your advice, I'll let you know what I think of the sand once it's here.
 
Jeremy, I thought I would post in this thread since I have a very similar question. I have a 90 gallon 18Dx24Hx48L. I was about to order the mini reef flakes and 3 koralia 1400 power heads. Will I be okay with this setup, or should I wait for you to get the reef flakes in stock? I could also get the smaller koralia 1050s. I'm not really sure how much flow I will need in this tank. I plan on keeping corals(soft/lps/some sps).
Thanks,
Doug
 
I think you'll be just fine with the Miniflakes. I think at first you're going to have a little bit of blowing around, but once it gets weighted down with bacteria in the system you'll be just fine. From there it would just come down to looks... If you like a slightly larger grain size you'll want the Reefflakes, if you don't mind the finer look then the Miniflakes would be good for you. The Miniflakes do not look like sugar size aragonite though, which is what the Aragasnow is.
 
Do you think I will be okay with the koralia 1050s as far as enough flow? I have 1 koralia 1400 already, a 400 gph return, and a wave maker. I am either getting 2 more 1400s or 1050s. What is your opinion?

P.S. I ordered 2 Vegas from you after reading your post comparing 3 different led fixtures. That really helped me finalize my decision. And thanks for the crazy fast shipping!
 
If it's a mixed reef and the wavemaker has the pumps all on the majority of the time then I'd say go with the smaller ones. If it's going to have mostly one pump or maybe two at the most running simultaneously the going with the bigger ones would be the better way to go.
 
I just put the first half or so in tonight. I'll assess tomorrow whether or not it needs more, but it looks fantastic! I thought people were exagurating when they talked about how clean this sand was, but they weren't. I didn't even bother washing one of the bags, just tossed in a filter sock and set the skimmer to skim a little wet. Water is already more clear two and half hours after adding the miniflakes than it was about 5 days after I put in heavily washed carib-sea sugarfine sand.

They are moving a little bit on the bottom in the current, but they are not being picked up off the bottom at all. Personally I tend to prefer a slightly rolling sand bed to one that's perfectly level, it looks more natural to me.

After it clear up tomorrow morning I'll gauge whether or not it needs more sand. Right now it looks like it goes from about 1.5" at the shallowest point to 4" at the deepest. I might need a tough more in one or two spots.

So far I'm loving it! Well worth the slight premium over caribsea sand, from what I've seen.
 
Glad to hear you're happy with it. Tropic Eden is without a doubt the nicest substrate available on the market, and well worth the few extra bucks over the Crarib Sea in my opinion.
 
I wanted to share my experience with the tropic eden miniflakes I recieved from premium aquatics. I dumped the miniflakes in my tank about 2-3 hours ago and as you can see from the picture this sand is clean. I did not wash it, just dumped it in, and the water is almost crystal clear already.

It also looks amazing! I had 80lbs. of caribsea live sand sea floor special in this tank for two weeks prior and the miniflakes are much more attractive. I decided to top it with 30lbs. of mini reeflakes.

I was worried that this sand would blow everywhere in the tank and dust everything, but it is really staying put. It swirls up in a few spots, but quickly settles. It doesn't move much more than the caribsea.

Very happy with this purchase.
 

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Looking good! I just added another ~35-40 lbs tonight, as I felt it would be advantageous to get it to 3"+ even in the shallow points.

Poured it right in, and an hour later now I can easily see from one side of the tank to the other.

I ordered one of those Jebo WP-40s, I'll be curious to see how well the sand stays put with a bit of a wave going on in the tank. Thus far, I'm very happy with it. I'll definitely use this substrate in future builds.
 
I'm also waiting on a wp40. Hopefully the led dimmer will help keep it from stirring up too much.
Thanks again grokthecube for recommending the herbie overflow. I can hear every little noise this tank makes at night.(it's 3 feet from my bed) If I didn't have an emergency drain, lets just say I wouldn't be getting much sleep.
 
Got the Jebo in the mail and set it up today. With a 1.5" wave in my 120 (pump 6" below surface, at the midway point on one of the "short" walls pointed straight at the opposing wall) the sand doesn't even budge :-D. It has however already managed to get more detritus than I realized I had in suspension out of the rocks.

FWIW, pretty impressive pump for the money. At 19.5v it's pretty comparable to my Tunze 6095 in terms of noise, and obviously in a different league in terms of flow.
 
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