Undergravel filter

Throw the UGF plates into the garbage. They are useless.

The advantage of Oolitic sand is that the sand bed does not need to be as deep! That way there is plenty of room for rock, coral and fish! If you can trust my experience, you will do just fine with 1.5 inches Oolitic and no more than one inch of Special Grade CaribSea.

I just set up another tank, my third, with Utah Oolitic. This is a ten gallon with one inch of freshly rinsed Oolitic and a half inch live CaribSea sand from two friends tanks. It's been four days and the glass is coated with green algae. This is even better than I anticipated. Most new setups have brown algae at this point and the green algae doesn't appear for another two weeks. Perhaps I also cheated by using about 75% old water and pieces of live rock from a friends established tank. Approximately 75%  of the sand is new Oolitic and 90% of the rock is clean Utah Aragonite.

The clam, acropora and other coral are doing well. I wouldn't normally put a clam in a new tank, but they were on sale at Bird World.

Mark        "Thinking outside the box"

I have about 10 gallons of it that I am looking to unload, but have no plans to collect more in the near future.

My work in the hobby is most always pushing the envelope so, unfortunately, you won't find many confirming opinions, just skeptics! People probably think I'm nuts and certainly opinionated, but some of my pioneering work has been the first in this area:

1995 - the plenum (and then to discard it)

1996 - the Reverse Daylight Photosynthesis Refugia

1997 - Mangroves in the RDP Refugia

1998 - an aquarium in direct sunlight;  bred & raised Tomato Clownfish

1999 - sponge/sea squirt/ Cryptic Zone Filtration

2001 - Surge Circulation ( I was a little late in trying this)

2002 - Utah Oolitic sand bed and Aragonite rock

Please forgive me for tooting my own horn here, but these are the facts.

Mark           "Thinking outside the box."

Rob,

Sand still available. No silicates, just calcium carbonate (aragonite).

I can be reached at 296-1563 anytime.

Mark