I have yet another question. I'm planning at a 38 gallon (36" x 12" x 17") reef tank, which I plan to have soft corals in. I don't plan to have very strong flow because I'm going to have softies (at least that's what I've learned through reading). What would be the finest grain sand I could go? I prefer the look of finer sand but don't want it constantly stirring up. Please let me know especially if you have a similar setup.
Substrate particle size
- Thread starter Aveet
- Start date
Mark Bianco
New member
Thats a hard question to answer. As for when you say not a very strong flow and I dont know what type of filter your using, but recommended flow will be 380 gallons per hour minium. That is still a lot of water movement and depending how you disperse it some sand is going to move. Its also a fair statement, whatever critters you have in the tank they will stir it up as well. Sorry I could not be more help.
RobZilla04
Active member
+1 CaribSea special grade
shaginwagon13
Chartered Accountant
I plan to have 36-40 pounds live rock, 465gph flow from canister (if I need to cycle anything), and a Jebao pp-4 power head. I've been reading all the reviews and looking at forums but no one includes numbers such as flow in the tank and what not. I didn't know if there was a magic number for flow(gph) out there for different substrates.
RobZilla04
Active member
The flow rate and substrate size have no direct correlation. You just don't want the power heads blowing the finer substrate particles around the DT. IMO substrate finer than the special grade will be messy.
mcgyvr
New member
There are too many variables there to state any concrete numbers..
Placement of powerheads/exact placement of rocks,etc...
On average though the special flor size seems to be the size where running the typical flow rates doesn't cause problems in most peoples tanks..Note it cal take a bit for sufficient quantities of bacteria to be present on the sand to essentially "glue" it in place some.. (aka my special grade blew around the first few days but after that I could crank up the powerheads and it stayed put)
