best sand for rays/sharks? silica? pool sand? sandbox?

[hrairguitar]

Setting up a 380 gallon tank. Going to stock it with a ray and 2 small sharks.

I currently have about 150-200 lbs of a mixture of that sand that's apparently already cycled but obviously need more

I've used that sand before with a coral cat shark and it caused a lot of redness on its belly so I don't want that stuff to be on the top layer. I'm thinking the cycled sand I have will cover about an inch or 2 and be primarily for filtration purposes. I want a good 4 inches of sand and wondering what my best bet will be.

I've done a lot of reading and I see a lot of people saying silica sand, pool filter sand or even sand box sand.

Any advice? Those 3 types of sand I listed are super cheap so that's appealing but I need to ensure they don't cause any belly redness which can lead to infection.

[Zoodiver]

A small or medium size aragonite sand is best. It will help maintain a stable pH for you as well as provide a good surface for them to lay on. Silca based sand you should avoid. I'd also suggest avoiding fine/light sand. Sharks and rays will kick up fine sand and it will clog your filter and give you a nice foggy haze in the water column.

When you get redness on the ventral size of a shark, it's not the sand that is doing it. It's a bacteria in the sand starting to spread to the animal. Shark skin is tougher that almost any other fish out there when it comes to making contact with the substrate.

[hrairguitar]

So I've called a bunch of compaines in the area and nobody has heard of aragonite. Is there another name that construction/landscapers would call it? Id like to avoid buying it from the LFS and being overcharged

[hrairguitar]

Anyone?

[hrairguitar]

anyone?

[Allmost]

dont think u can find aragonite elsewhere ...

its calcium carbonate ...

speak to your LFS, see if you can get bulk ... might save some there.

[Zoodiver]

http://www.caribsea.com/itempage_marinesubstrate_aragalive.htm


I'd go with something 1mm-2mm in size for a small shark tank like you are doing. I've gone as big a 3-5mm for large tanks with big adult sharks and had no issues.

Edit: Another thing to think about - you only need enough substrate to cover the bottom. There is no set lbs/gallon rule to follow when doing a shark tank. Going over board with depth will often times cause more problems.

[Krisjm23]

You can get it on eBay now Snow White aragalive sand