Choosing the best sand

[NeonNomad]

Hey Everyone! So I am going to be starting my first tank cycle and I see there are so many types of sand and grain sizes. I want to start with a live sand. But I was wondering which sand would be the best for my tank. I want to have coral eventually and may get a watchman goby in the future so just looking to be lead in the right direction. Thanks

 

[xxkenny90xx]

The watchman likes to move sand around a lot so I would go with a fine, small grain sand for it.

Live sand imo is a big scam. It might have been full of life at one point but once it's sat sealed on a shelf for who knows how long I don't imagine it has much good stuff left. Maybe some good bacteria but mostly dead rotting junk. That being said, lots of live rock is the way to go!

 

[Subsea]

Welcome to the addiction. Hooked for 48 years.

Depending on your methods & the live stock in your tank, determines everything about what goes on and in what order. Because I am old school, I consider the sand as more than nitrifying bacteria. I consider a live sand as functioning to feed the tank by recycling organic & inorganic nutrients into live food for hungry mouths.

Live Rock - Tampa Bay Saltwater Aquacultured Live Rock - The Package

Look at this link and see what Real Live Sand is.

 

[Gunstable]

I just purchased the Caribsea special grade sand for my 130 gallon. My 150 gal has the Figi Pink which is slightly finer than the Special grade. I am going a bit coarser to prevent some of the sand from being blown around.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Welcome to the addiction. Hooked for 48 years.

Depending on your methods & the live stock in your tank, determines everything about what goes on and in what order. Because I am old school, I consider the sand as more than nitrifying bacteria. I consider a live sand as functioning to feed the tank by recycling organic & inorganic nutrients into live food for hungry mouths.

Live Rock - Tampa Bay Saltwater Aquacultured Live Rock - The Package

Look at this link and see what Real Live Sand is.

Yes! Now that sand is the real deal. Nothing like the petco stuff

 

[Subsea]

Gulf Live Rock.com

Gulf Live Rock Specializing in wholesale and retail sales of Aquacultured Live Rock and live sand at direct from the diver prices. Free Shipping! coral reeftank

gulfliverock.com

Tampa Bay Saltwater & Gulf Live Rock are excellent sources of both live sand & live rock. I have used both for years. Both companies are exceptional environmental stewards. Where there was nothing but flat sand bottom, 10 million pounds of dry limestone was mined, freighted to barges and transferred to ocean floor. In the future, new Florida live collectors permits are frozen in hell until legislators realize how much these offshore aquacultured reefs contribute to diversity.

I favor Gulf Live Rock

Gulf Live Rock.com

Gulf Live Rock Specializing in wholesale and retail sales of Aquacultured Live Rock and live sand at direct from the diver prices. Free Shipping! coral reeftank

gulfliverock.com

[Premium Decorative Live Rock is our most popular rock. This rock will have thick coralline algae on it and a mixed variety of plants, animals, hard and soft corals, sponges and so much more. This type of rock has an enormous variety of animal and encrusting marine life. The shapes and sizes are extremely unique. This rock could contain multi-colored Christmas tree worms, cup and tube corals, feather dusters, gorgonians, serpulid worms and encrusting clams.
This rock is fully blanketed with colorful coralline algae's, these algae's come in multitudes of fascinating shades of purple, reds, oranges, peaches and yellows. Most rocks contain bryzoans,orange leather sponge,gracilaria algae,halimeda, sea grapes, cluster corals, and cup corals. All of our premium decorative live rocks contain seeded plant life,both macro and micro algae.All pieces are hand collected fresh from our gulf lease site by our diving staff and shipped directly to our customers.We do not use any chemicals in our process. The rocks pictured are for example only. All of our premium decorative live rock is as good or better than the rocks pictured. This is Florida Aquacultured live rock.
All of our live rock comes from our personal Federal Aquaculture Lease site located 10 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. All of our rock was planted on the ocean floor in 1994. So you can image how much marine life has grown on it in over the last 15 years. We have live rock in all different sizes and we can custom fit your order. Our premium decorative live rock starts at $5 a pound. We offer wholesale prices on larger volume orders.]​

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

 

[NeonNomad]

Gulf Live Rock.com

Gulf Live Rock Specializing in wholesale and retail sales of Aquacultured Live Rock and live sand at direct from the diver prices. Free Shipping! coral reeftank

gulfliverock.com

Tampa Bay Saltwater & Gulf Live Rock are excellent sources of both live sand & live rock. I have used both for years. Both companies are exceptional environmental stewards. Where there was nothing but flat sand bottom, 10 million pounds of dry limestone was mined, freighted to barges and transferred to ocean floor. In the future, Florida live collectors permits are frozen in hell until legislators realize how much these offshore aquacultured reefs contribute to diversity.

I favor Gulf Live Rock

Gulf Live Rock.com

Gulf Live Rock Specializing in wholesale and retail sales of Aquacultured Live Rock and live sand at direct from the diver prices. Free Shipping! coral reeftank

gulfliverock.com

[Premium Decorative Live Rock is our most popular rock. This rock will have thick coralline algae on it and a mixed variety of plants, animals, hard and soft corals, sponges and so much more. This type of rock has an enormous variety of animal and encrusting marine life. The shapes and sizes are extremely unique. This rock could contain multi-colored Christmas tree worms, cup and tube corals, feather dusters, gorgonians, serpulid worms and encrusting clams.
This rock is fully blanketed with colorful coralline algae's, these algae's come in multitudes of fascinating shades of purple, reds, oranges, peaches and yellows. Most rocks contain bryzoans,orange leather sponge,gracilaria algae,halimeda, sea grapes, cluster corals, and cup corals. All of our premium decorative live rocks contain seeded plant life,both macro and micro algae.All pieces are hand collected fresh from our gulf lease site by our diving staff and shipped directly to our customers.We do not use any chemicals in our process. The rocks pictured are for example only. All of our premium decorative live rock is as good or better than the rocks pictured. This is Florida Aquacultured live rock.
All of our live rock comes from our personal Federal Aquaculture Lease site located 10 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. All of our rock was planted on the ocean floor in 1994. So you can image how much marine life has grown on it in over the last 15 years. We have live rock in all different sizes and we can custom fit your order. Our premium decorative live rock starts at $5 a pound. We offer wholesale prices on larger volume orders.]​

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

I will definitely check out there website thank you!

 

[Pistondog]

+1 for gulfliverock.com
They ship harvested gulf rock wrapped in wetpaper towels. 3 days to me so lots of death, but lots of life, clams feather dusters, limpets, halmedea, worms, coralline, sponges more stuff I haven't seen. Beautiful live rock.
$85 FOR 17 LBS shipped.
They do offer air freight, which I'll do next time, pick up and pay shipping $65 for 80 lbs at airport.
If you get this, then get fiji pink or coarser and you have a great start.
They sell sand too, but i didn't consider that.

 

[NeonNomad]

+1 for gulfliverock.com
They ship harvested gulf rock wrapped in wetpaper towels. 3 days to me so lots of death, but lots of life, clams feather dusters, limpets, halmedea, worms, coralline, sponges more stuff I haven't seen. Beautiful live rock.
$85 FOR 17 LBS shipped.
They do offer air freight, which I'll do next time, pick up and pay shipping $65 for 80 lbs at airport.
If you get this, then get fiji pink or coarser and you have a great start.
They sell sand too, but i didn't consider that.

Thank you for your reply I am definitely going to be checking them out!

 

[ScubaFish802]

I’ve used Fiji Pink as well and haven’t had any issues myself