Coarse or Fine

I would recommend coarse unless you have fish that require fine sand. I used fine sand in my tank because I knew I was going to have wrasses, but I had sand blowing everywhere for the first few months.

 

Which would be better for sand sifters (gobies)?

 

Thank you for all the replies.As far as what type of fish I'll be stocking,I'm not sure.I'm still reading saltwater for dummies,no laughing...I would like a couple lion fish,a clown,and some puffers,and humu's.not sure if they all get along but I'll keep reading and asking questions at this gr8 site.

 

Perhaps I should read that book.

I tried the lion/puffer/trigger combo once-- One day when I came home from work, the puffer was missing, the lion was lying dead on the bottom- severely "bloated"- and the trigger was frantically trying to jump out of the tank; in spite of the fact that I placed him in a different tank, he still died overnight.

Not quite sure what the proper equation would be as far as size/addition order is concerned, but obviously mine didn't work. Puffers and triggers can torment a lion to death with fin-nipping, but adding a larger lion and smaller puffer is not the correct answer. Mixing poisonous fish can have very negative results, regardless of size.

 

and traps a little more detritus

I would go with some of both, the fine will fill in between the coarse, and the coarse sand will help facilitate water transfer to the lower levels of the fine sand so you don't get dead spots. Should look good too, and it you will benefit from the larger amount of surface area fine sand has. May get blown around, but it usually ends up in dunes which is cool I think.

 

I guess it depends on the species, but fine sand would be better there, but gobies that build burrows would like some coarser stuff...

 

Great answer John,I'm going to take your advise,and use the combo!!!! Thank you all.