What substrate do you use and why?

[aandfsoccr04]

I use a combination of tropic eden reef flakes and mini flakes. About 3 parts reef flakes to 1 part mini flakes. I had sugar fine sand before and it was the biggest mistake I've made in this hobby to date over the past two years. It blew all over and covered up corals and killed them.

 

[vansk8r]

I would do 1/3 crushed coral and 2/3 arognite
crushed coral keeps your ph in tack

 

[Pufferfood]

Tropic Eden Aragasnow for me. Wonderful sand and I think the sand hermits appreciate it. My MP40 luckily does not blow it around, the sand has been moved around though forming small hills around the tank.

I might start siphoning it out with water changes in a year+ or so, to use the glass bottom to make a carpet of zoas and such.

 

[worm5406]

I have had the best luck with the Original Grade Substrate. Snails and stuff can get moving in it.

I put the oolite in my sump. Slow flow so it will not go everywhere.

 

[Paul B]

I use dolomite gravel because it works with my under gravel filter.

 

[worm5406]

OK so I took some pictures tonight...

These show the difference between oolite and fiji pink.

That is a omega one pellet beside the snail.

The last one is a tubeworm coming up through origional grade, which is only a bit larger than oolite.. This is from my new 180. My old 120 (still running) is using original from carbisea.

 

[Green Chromis]

I use a NSB (natural sand bed) collected from the reefs off South Florida. You would be amazed at all the wild life in the sand. Every to 3 years or so I change about 25% of the sand bed to replenish the animals that live in the sand.

 

[Paul B]

You can see my dolomite here

 

[worm5406]

@PaulB

I see you are using glass in your tank... I Like the coloring it puts off in different light.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, if you mean the bottle, there are about 9 of them, most of which I picked up while diving here in NY.
I like bottles, What can I say?

 

[worm5406]

I had a 6pack of coronaettes in mine... but the snails liked the painted label too much and it had little snail mouth lines all over it... hahahaha

 

[Paul B]

Thats cool. Did you ever have one of these?

 

[worm5406]

I was afraid of lockjaw for my fish.. I always wanted to do that but never did.

What type or any conditioning did you do with it?

 

[Paul B]

I coated it in fiberglass resin

 

[Sk8r]

I use aluminum where it definitely gets wet, no corrosion...

Re sand: I have a real potent pump. I tried superfine sand, and it killed corals. At some effort and over time, I removed the fine sand and replaced with medium grade aragonite, washed, of course---much happier camper, here.

 

[worm5406]

And Sk8r.... you should know...

I am moving my 120 to a new 180... I don't have any bites from friends on the 120.. I was thinking of just taking it and making it BB and doing coral and frags in there... (I have not been advertising the 120 lately... hahahaha)

 

[twf0369]

Stay away from the sugar fine sand! This is what I currently have and am waiting for the day to change it out. I know that day will be a huge PITA, so for now I am constantly using a turkey baster to clean everything off. In addition, the water is never clear. There are always sand particles floating around.

 

[EDJFA]

I have the Caribsea Indo-Pacific black, which is actually a combination of black and white. The sand ranges in size from fine white to 3-4mm black pieces of what I'm assuming is volcanic rock. When I had a pistol shrimp, he would use the larger "boulders" to block the entrance to his tunnels.

I looked at plain white sand and it was fine, but everyone had it. Not too many people are using anything other than white. I like unique.

 

[Esage]

I have the Caribsea Indo-Pacific black, which is actually a combination of black and white. The sand ranges in size from fine white to 3-4mm black pieces of what I'm assuming is volcanic rock. When I had a pistol shrimp, he would use the larger "boulders" to block the entrance to his tunnels.

I looked at plain white sand and it was fine, but everyone had it. Not too many people are using anything other than white. I like unique.

I'm using the same sand.