White Oolite Sand

[Icewing726]

IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!! Well, at least it felt that way this morning. Did my first major overhaul on my tank and one of my moves was to put in new power heads that were about 4 times as strong as my current hydors were. (150 gallon tank went from about a 1500 gph flow capability to a 4300ish gph flow)

I know what your thinking "Clearly he just blasted his sand bed with the new power heads". Well actually I got adjustable flow ones and started with them at 20% power (Current USA's). After I saw good results I upped them to 40 and thought things were fine. Through the course of the night it dug the sand down to the glass and most of it settled on my rocks.

So on with the issue. I have wrasses and they stir the sand every time they bounce and I have a tang that hates my fox face and they stir things up too. So sand being suspended has always been an issue. I wanted the extra flow to keep detritus from settling.

My worry is with all the stirring my residents do, how much of this sand will make it into the sump? Is there a covering anyone could recommend for the overflow? I want my filter to function but I don't want to do the clean out I just had to do. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[mcgyvr]

What type of filter are you using in the sump?..

How much sand will go where all depends on how extreme you stir it up and many variables..No generalized answer possible..
Oolitic sand is just too small and always causes issues..

 

[Icewing726]

just using foam to catch debris then baffles to drive through marine pure balls to the skimmer/uv to a refugium to the return all with foam in between.

Edit: I just want to prevent the suspended sand from dumping into the filtration tube through the over flow. Figure it'll double as a guard against fish. I realize some may still get through but I'm hoping most will just stay in the tank since it doesn't have a strong current driving it into the overflow. What I don't want to do is block stuff that should go to the over flow from getting there which is why I'm asking about prefilter material.

 

[mcgyvr]

I wouldnt do anything unless you know its going to be a problem...A mechanical filter on the overflow is going to stop whatever is larger than its pore size regardless of if its good or bad...

 

[kmbyrnes]

i liked the look of oolite so when I reset my reef, I went with it. I have regretted it ever since, but I am not at the point of replacing it .... yet.
There is suspended grains any time any fish does a tail-swish, I clean the sand line around the glass, or try to get debris out of the rock work during water change.
I have found the balance between flow and blizzard, but I need to get the finer grains out of the sump every month of so.
If I too it too soon, the amount return to DT is out out of proportion to the silt stirred up. If I wait too long, the silt from sump cleaning caused another blizzard before I get the
The tank is growing well and I don't want to to a totally sand bed replacement. But I plan to gradual it replace with larger grains over time next spring.

 

[top shelf]

The only real solution is removing the oolite or putting a layer of larger grain sand over the top. As mcgyvr pointed out whatever filter is place on the overflow will stop anything larger then its pore sizes and in the case of oolite it would need very small pores and would stop just about every but the water. Debris will build up quickly so it will need cleaned almost daily or it will drastically decrease flow to the sump.