Substrate size for vacuuming

[puddleglum]

I want to set up a 10 gallon for zoanthids and ricordeas. I want to keep things simple and it seems to me like vacuuming the substrate when I do water changes is the way to go. Not saying success can't be had with other methods, but I would rather export the nutrients than hope the sand bed is properly balanced to break things down.

I know lots of people siphon their substrate, and am looking for suggestions of what kind of coarse sand, small gravel, or crushed coral works well for siphoning. Smaller looks better, imo, but too small could be harder to clean.

Anyone have suggestions of a nice looking product that is easy to clean that I can keep an eye out for?

Thank you,
-pg

 

[Formulator]

but I would rather export the nutrients than hope the sand bed is properly balanced to break things down.

There is nothing magical about the sand bed that breaks things down in any of our tanks. With proper flow and a good clean up crew of inverts, your sand will stay clean. If you do get pockets of detritus you can siphon, but it is not often enough that I would base your sand choice off of it. I have relatively small grain special grade aragonite and can still siphon when needed, but I haven’t needed to for many months.

 

[Formulator]

I get around this by swilling the surface of the substrate lightly with my finger tips to get the debris in to the water column a bit

Sounds like a good way to get a finger full of bristleworm needles to me LOL

 

[graihg]

Make sure you get "special grade." This is the particulate size.