According to Dr. Shimek ( Deep Sand Beds ) Deep Sand Beds should be composed of very fine grain to be best for the creatures living in it. He gives an average of 0.125mm. I think smaller than what most folk actually use. I have seen a few posts of people sayng that when using the extremely fine grain it just gets blown around alot. I figure it might just take more time to settle out.
I am looking at a sand that advertises grain size between 0.1mm and 1mm which would be close to the target range he is advocating. Though I don't know what the ratio is.
Anyway I was curious what anyone's experience with fine grain sand has been. Does it get blown around alot? Does it settle down after a period? How long does that take? And most importantly how does it seem to support the life it is supposed to?
I haven't used superfine sand yet, but am aiming to do so in my new set up. I've heard that it takes a bit of time to settle down and get the dust out of the system, but it should be fine after some time.
I think the grain size is also much better for most of the sand bed life. Gobies, for instance, prefer the smaller grain size, as it's much easier for them to sift it through their gills. Most of the sea cucumbers, star fish, brittle stars, and the like are also very happy in a superfine sand bed. I think you'll find that it's actually much better at containing/maintaining life than ...say...a coral sand bed.
I have Southdown which is very fine. It was terrible at first, both the initial sandstorm and if it was disturbed, but now it is fine.
mine is the same...
really what happens is during your first few months you have to keep the flow a bit lower and/or away from the substrate... then its starts to settle in and ger a but compacted.. then its alot better.. powereheads will still dig holes and shift it if your not careful, but once it settles your fine..
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I use sugar fine.... that's as fine as I will go. I don't know the size off hand but it's not 0.125mm. I had such trouble with that stuff. I forget exactly what happened, but the flow changed and my plate got completely covered. It never recovered. When I set of the 28 gallon SPS nano I'm thinking of "gluing" substrate on there so it can be blown around in the high flow environment.
I'll use a remote DSB if I need/want to go that route.
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Last edited by Seahorsedreams; 03-25-2007 at 03:05 PM.
Where in the world do you get southdown? In my display i am using a thicker sand, "sugar fine" i think, but in the remote dsb i will follow your advise there. This super fine stuff is not the "typical" CaribSea sand is it?
__________________ Samuel
"If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.... There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region."
It's definitely not as cheap as play sand, but for only 90 gallons it would not be a too significant cost component of my setup. But if i can find some good playsand and try it out first I will use some of that.
Actually CaribSea does have a sugar-fine oolithic grade that is 0.1 - 1.0 mm grains. It is on their website too.
Okay....what in the world does oolithic mean?
cannt.....reech....dictionari :P
__________________ Samuel
"If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.... There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region."
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