Tropic eden reef flakes sand

jonnyu

jonnyu

New member
Anyone using this sand? I'm having problem keeping it white. Don't know what I can do to keep it clean. I want to know if this is a new tank deal and it will cleanup or do I need to remove it.


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Hey Johnny, I just put it in our 40 breeder tank. I think that in a new tank set up you will see some extra stuff growing on the sand and as your tank matures everything will fall into line. I've heard nothing but good good stuff about the appearance of the tropic eden reef flakes. Also some people do vacuum it from time to time I've heard.


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Well it's been a couple months. So kind of frustrated about it.


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I've never had the pleasure of having a pristine sand bed. The only places that mine is ever pristine is where the flow is ridiculous or where my pistol shrimp and goby hang out. If I vacuum it regularly it stays looking good but never as good as right after a vacuum. I have some nassarius snails but should probably get more. I have a conch but probably need more. I've also considered adding a cuke. But unless you have an animal physically turning over the sand or really high flow to prevent settling I don't think you can have a perfect looking bed all by magic. At least that's my perception. Same applies to my first tank which had a finer sand.
 
Well the sand is green. Only way it has looked good was me physically turning the sand over.


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Does your rock look similar right now? From what I remember of the pictures everything in your tank was new right? I think it's going to take longer than three months to get all the little microbes, fauna, etc. going that will keep everything looking good. I'm not 100% sure on this, just kind of thinking from past research I've done about how an established system has so much more going on keep everything looking good.


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e7906441cab2d260d518226e3a63adea.jpg

Here is a pic of the sand. Only part is white is where pumps blow it around


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Lol so there is hope lol I was thinking about taking sand out and glueing all these sticks down.
372ccff70c9e980df367eb075b47a89e.jpg

Do you think tank will still look good ? I think have about 350 par in the sand


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A few colonies in sand might look good. Look for Andrew's (Biggles) tank in SPS forum, he has barely any rock and he looks like he has coral mounds in the sand. Not directly but close enough. Personally I wouldn't because I love your scape but you may like it.
 
f6d9546bb7180fc062a903e6b297a55e.jpg


Our reef flakes are doing the same thing right now. All parameters check out great so I think the tank is just maturing.


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Rovster I'm going to keep sand till the new year. If it doesn't bare bottom in my future lol

Mang how long has your tank been running ?


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I found out that sponges absorb silicates, which are probably the main reason of your sand turning brown/green. My new tank started to do that with the new live sand when I transferred everything over. The new tank has been running for 3 weeks now and I'm noticing a lot less of the brown diatoms on the sand as well as a good amount of sponges that popped up. Also my conch and cerith snails have been helping a bit as well.
 
jonnyu said:
Rovster I'm going to keep sand till the new year. If it doesn't bare bottom in my future lol

Mang how long has your tank been running ?


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It's only been a little more than a week. It's a very thin layer. I can turn two pp4's and one pp8 all the way up and the sand doesn't move at all.


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Ocean Mang said:
It's only been a little more than a week. It's a very thin layer. I can turn two pp4's and one pp8 all the way up and the sand doesn't move at all.


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Mine looked like your as well but then turned red then green. Been up for 3 months I think.
I'm running rw20 and it blows sand everywhere. I have tried every angle possible. Rw15 installed a couple weeks ago and sand doesn't move around. Trying mp60 and seems to work great no sand movement. I'm working on installing a 2nd to see if it work out.


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I just realized my post could have easily been misinterpreted. What I meant is that if all you want to wait is another month or 2 don't waste your time and just pull the sand now because it will likely take longer for it to establish. There is nothing wrong with the sand, it just needs to become established. You have a ton more sand than I had and mine took a good 6-8 months, just like my rocks did before all the crap started to go away. Even then I still see it here and there. Realistically with a sandbed that big, some maintenance will be needed. Its great sand, but anytime you start with anything "dry" rock or sand it takes 10 times longer for it to settle in.
 
I use reef flakes mixed with miniflakes in my current tank. I've had a Sand bed with pure reefflakes and had the same issue. Right now my Sand bed is looking pretty good, which I give all the credit to my Fighting Conch. Sifts the substrate all day long.


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