Seeking the Perfect Tank Sand: Stunning Aesthetics and High-Flow Resilience Advice Needed!

[LiLinka]

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a great day! I'm wondering what you all think would be an appropriate sand choice for my tank. I'm aiming for about 1-2 inches of sand at the bottom. While I love the look of Fiji Pink, I'm concerned it might get blown away due to the high flow I'll have. I'm not a fan of chunkier, larger grain sizes like crushed coral or original grade. Do you have any recommendations for sand that both looks amazing and can withstand higher flow? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[kyleinpdx]

I grew up in the caribbean, about 100ft from the waters edge so I feel I'm pretty intimately familiar with the look, feel/texture of the sand from the beaches I'm used to. Because of this I make a mix of roughly:

50% special grade 1-2mm
25% "bimini pink" .5-5mm
25% "natural reef" 3-6mm

works well for the melanurus wrasse and pearly jawfish, not to mention the plethora of sand dwelling cuc...

 

[LiLinka]

I really appreciate that suggestion, and it hadn't crossed my mind to mix different sands together. Thanks a lot for sharing that insight. I'm open to hearing more from anyone else who'd like to contribute. Your comments are most welcome!

 

[UtahReefer]

I have success with Aquaforest Sand. I have a 100 gallon SPS system with high flow (about 70x's turnover). The sand seems to settle down and stays in place. At that turnover rate I do not have sand blowing all over the tank.

 

[exnisstech]

All of my tanks are bare bottom but I recently added a mix of Figi pink and Bimini pink when I added a blue haddoni to one of my tanks. The only reason I used that combo was because I had some of each laying around. It was too fine and I recently removed it and replaced it with caribsea special grade. The pinks were getting blown around too much. The special grade may be coarser than you want but it's quite a bit smaller and whiter than crushed coral IMO. What grain sand that works for you will depend a lot on your tank layout and flow.
Just for reference this is my layout. There are 2 Nero 5s on the back wall running in random mode at 50%. Return pump is jebao dcp 3500 running 75% I have no idea what the actual gph turnover is as my math sucks and I really don't care as long as corals are happy.