substrate

Hey all, Having a debate with a good friend who is a multi tank reefer and swears by bare bottom tanks. A majority of them are SPS dominant with a few mixed. I on the other hand I run 3 tanks each with white sand and working on a black sand nem tank. I prefer the diversity:) So the great...

I got this reef for 18 months. Never cleaned the sand. The sandbed is Aragonite 2mm with 1'' height. I thought it was coralline algae in the sand, but i'm not sure anymore, it looks really ugly! Nitrates and phosphates 0 I showed this picture to a LRS owner and he think it might be a...

Hello all, I am wondering what is the cheapest bulk sand that is reef safe? This will not be used as a sand bed but instead will be used to create some cement sand molds. I’m looking for something very fine like CaribSea Super Naturals Aquarium Sand but cheaper. CaribSea Super Naturals Aquarium...

Hi to all I am new to the saltwater aquarium hobby I am going with a 40 gallon breeder and currently making decisions on what I whant as far as equipment. My question is should I start with a substrate or bare bottom. Is one easier to keep stable over time then the other or dose it just take...

I was helping a friend of mine get into the hobby after he told me he wanted to keep a mantis shrimp. I built him a plan for his build and explained how everything works and all the “rigorous” processes and procedures he’d have to follow to set it up properly and maintain it. It’s a 13.5 gallon...

If you are new to the hobby or you want to learn a little more about choosing the right substrate for your aquarium then take a look at this article from guest contributor, Robert Woods. http://aquanerd.com/2018/09/how-to-pick-the-right-substrate-for-your-marine-aquarium.html

I'm replacing my current 4 year old sand bed with a larger sized grain. I've removed half. It's about 2 gal of sand. If you want it let me know. If you want to pay for it even better. I'm planning on replacing the other half next week, Tuesday 09/18. It's wet sand. I switched over to the...

I've seen lots of debates on the type of substrates people use. I've personally always gone with a little bit bigger sized sand(middle pic) so I can have my powerheads going stronger. My local reef store however has changed all there display tanks to coral rubble as substrate(right pic) and they...

Only if you’ve done it .... how bad is it to use dry pink Fiji without rinsing ? It’s cold here in nj and I really don’t feel like doing it

I know I am not going crazy, but I can't think of the name for the life of me. I have a shroom box inc because I am tired of shrooms detaching. But I saw some stuff I really liked as substrate. Broken rock can work and I may go that route eventually. But there is some stuff that looks a bit like...

I've scoured this forum and read up on Caribsea Life Rock and that seems disproportionately little information compared to other topics here on R2R. Is that because not many people here use it? And if so, why not? Is it just not appealing to a large portion of reefers? Or is it just good...

Hello, I'll be setting up my first tank and I need help picking a substrate. I have caribsea fiji pink and special grade in mind but I really dont know what is best. I will have two jabeo pp4's and my return pump does 400-800 gph. I will mainly have LPS and softies with maybe a couple SPS. I...

Do you have to use live sand? or can it be just a regular substrate? Thanks in advance

I have live sand in all 3 DTs. I need to provide some "variety" for a few fish and so I've gotten some fine sand that is for SW and made a few piles of it. They like it. But I would like to add 2 other things but I'm not sure if it's ok. 1. I bought a canister of shell pieces. It appears to be...