Sand Everywhere

I used that sand along with some of the aragonite sand so I had a really good diversity of particle sizes, I have about a 50/50 mix. When I put it in I had allot of it floating also so I scooped out the floating stuff and put it all in a 5 gallon bucket for a few days stirring once in a while till it sunk to the bottom, then I put it back into the tank. The reason it is floating is its really light and most likely has air bubbles that you cannot see that is helping hold it up and once you separate it from the air the sand will sink to the bottom.

If its not to much trouble you might want to consider adding some heavier sands to the small stuff. Your going to find that the light stuff moves really easy and when your pumps are on and running I would be willing to bet it will blow around the tank again. But you really do not have to remove all the sand and replace it, it will be just fine.

 

Any suggestions on what sand to use? I want to have around 2" of sand on the bottom.

 

Caribsea Sugar Oolite

Great particle size, aragonite-based. Should be what you need.

Sounds like you will nee about 10 bags - wherever you are getting them from they should give you some kind of discount for buying that many. It should be less than $30 a bag so you are looking at about 300 bux. When buying that many tho - see if you can get a discount on them or at least get a little bonus - like some CUC members, additives, etc.

Either way it's safe to say that not too many LFS will have this much sand on hand and will have to order so you should shop it out before you commit unless you are in love with your local LFS and plan to give them the business regardless (respectable!! I do the same for most of my tank needs).

Hope this helps!!!!

Can't wait to see your 300 gallon creation!!!!!

 

If you want it to go away faster, just get a bag of Aragalive or similar wet bagged sand.

Turn off the pumps, cut off a corner of the bag, take out a couple of gallons of water (but keep it) and cover the finer sand by SLOWLY squeezing the wet sand out of the bag right over the sand you now have. (i.e. don't dump it from the top of the tank.....actually put the whole bag under water and pretend you're decorating a cake). I personally like Fiji Pink. Turn the pumps on and add a portion of the water you saved. However, this isn't necessary. It will eventually settle. It really all depends on how quick you want it to happen.

Feldspar is inert so I wouldn't bother sucking your sand out. It won't hurt your tank anymore than Silica sand will cause diatoms. Aragonite becomes mostly inert once it becomes coated with bacterial biofilms so all of the buffering that people think happen from it, really doesn't occur to any appreciable degree.

 

"M-ocean man" you beat me to it, i agree i use this in my 75...NO COMPLAINTS AT ALL, only time it really gets cloudy is when you stir it up...but thats obvious lol

 

CaribSea Dry Aragonite | Aragamax Sugar Sized Sand | Aragamax Select | Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand | Fiji Pink Reef Sand | Flamingo Reef Sand | Bermuda Pink | Grand Bahamas Biome | Super Reef

 

Great minds . . . .

 

Inwall.....I've been running the pumps and PH for about 3 weeks and it still is suspended in the water column. Should it take this long to drop out?

 

always!

jack102367, i posted the link so you could figure out which grain you wanted to go with, i use the Fiji Pink Reef Sand, but thats just what i like...easier to fill a large tank because it comes in 50lb bags...good luck

 

100% it's the grain size.

In all liklihood since it sounds like you have a good amount of flow (which is a VERY good thing) this will not end if it has been going on for 3 weeks.

It's the best time right now to replace that sand - you are working on a very big project that I am sure involves a lot of money - it's the best opportunity you will have to nip this in the bud - otherwise it's going to cause you all kinds of problems down the road.