Water flow causing sand dunes

[snakeblitz33]

Hello all,
75g reef tank. You don't need to know parameters for this question.
I have two Koralia 3's and one Koralia 5 that I use for water movement in my tank. I am having some big problems with sand dunes in my tank. I'm tired of seeing the sandbed moving around so much.
I am getting it ready for SPS corals, and I am seriously contemplating taking the sandbed out... yet again.
I am not pointing the powerheads directly at the sandbed... mostly straight back and forth and at the live rock.
Any advice is appreciated.
An MP40 in the future is in the works, as well as re-designing the aquascape.

 

[sweatervest13]

I had the same issue when I added the MP40's. the sand would blow everywhere. I replaced the sugar fine sand with a much larger grain ( I think it's called pukani {sp} sand).
I still have a little sand movement but it is a lot better and I can ramp up the vortech's without much worry.

 

[snakeblitz33]

I siphoned out all of my oolite and replaced it with pukani... a much larger grain size. It's still duning really bad. I'm tempted to siphon out all of the sand and just go barebottom. Once I've removed the sand, I guess I will be re-aquascaping the tank.

 

[lubeck]

Reef flakes won't create clouds in the water column. I'm very happy with it and I learned the hard way like most of us. I went bre bottom until I found out about reef flakes. Went through a lot of headaches and unnecessary work before finding it. If you really want no movement you can sift out leaving only the larger flakes.
Seth you saw the one pic where it did move the sand but it didn't create a cloud, it's too heavy. I have my tank moving around 6000 gallons 60x turnover per hour between the return and CL. I finally have it dialed in with no blowing. I still have 2 mp10s that can go in there adding another 3000 gph but not sure if I will add them,probably though.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubeck http:///t/395763/water-flow-causing-sand-dunes#post_3524358
Reef flakes won't create clouds in the water column. I'm very happy with it and I learned the hard way like most of us. I went bre bottom until I found out about reef flakes. Went through a lot of headaches and unnecessary work before finding it. If you really want no movement you can sift out leaving only the larger flakes.
Seth you saw the one pic where it did move the sand but it didn't create a cloud, it's too heavy. I have my tank moving around 6000 gallons 60x turnover per hour between the return and CL. I finally have it dialed in with no blowing. I still have 2 mp10s that can go in there adding another 3000 gph but not sure if I will add them,probably though.
Reef flakes huh? I'll do some research on it.
Your tank is coming along great! I hope I can have as much success.
I am considering going ahead and siphoning out all the sand and then pulling the rocks out to drill and zip tie for a new aquascape. I'm getting tired of it just looking like a lump of rocks down the center of the 'scape.
I'm just trying to get everything done and under control before I start adding any more SPS to the system. The reason I am leaning more towards a bare bottom tank is because I can add a ton of water flow to the system and not have to worry about sand dunes or a bunch of silt flying around the tank... and I don't have to worry about my frags getting covered with sand that are closer to the bottom rocks.
I could add encrusting montipora to the bottom of the tank to cover it... and what won't be covered by montipora could be covered by coralline??
I'm just thinking... "what will make me happy, long term?"