I'm new to the hobby and was wondering if anyone could offer some advice on sand.
A.)I'm planning on doing a deep sand bed. From what I've read, it should be comprised of finer grain sands like oolitic, and the tank should have really good flow in order to keep detritus from building up on the floor. This is a bit confusing b/c I got the impression from different articles/posts that oolitic tends to be blown around the tank b/c it's so fine. Then again I have also read that bacteria growth will eventually somehow help make the sand more "sticky" so that it won't get blown around as much. Is that sufficient? Should I go with a coarser sand? Or get weaker powerheads? If I need to dial down the powerheads, what should I target in terms of flow-rate? For context I'm planning on having a mixed 90g tank with a 29g sump/refugium.
B.) I was planning on getting mostly dry sand and maybe seeding with a cup of sand from a LFS. Is there a LFS that people recommend to get the live sand from? Also is that something they would give away/sell? Is there a particular brand of sand/grain that people recommend for the dry sand?
A.)I'm planning on doing a deep sand bed. From what I've read, it should be comprised of finer grain sands like oolitic, and the tank should have really good flow in order to keep detritus from building up on the floor. This is a bit confusing b/c I got the impression from different articles/posts that oolitic tends to be blown around the tank b/c it's so fine. Then again I have also read that bacteria growth will eventually somehow help make the sand more "sticky" so that it won't get blown around as much. Is that sufficient? Should I go with a coarser sand? Or get weaker powerheads? If I need to dial down the powerheads, what should I target in terms of flow-rate? For context I'm planning on having a mixed 90g tank with a 29g sump/refugium.
B.) I was planning on getting mostly dry sand and maybe seeding with a cup of sand from a LFS. Is there a LFS that people recommend to get the live sand from? Also is that something they would give away/sell? Is there a particular brand of sand/grain that people recommend for the dry sand?