What's the best coarser substrate?

[bbrantley]

Howdy all,

I'm trying to figure out what the best substrate is for a new tank where I want to have a SSB. I want the shallowest SSB I can get away with, but I know fine stuff just tends to get blown around by powerheads. I plan to replace the SSB regularly, and I'm okay with vacuuming it occasionally, though I'd rather let gobies and other natural cleaners do most of the work if possible.

What would you recommend for such a bed? Ideally it would be nice and white, and magnetically attracted to the bottom so it never moves. :)

For reference' sake, I have a 225G today that has Southdown. Yes, the bacteria grew on it and now it is nice and "sticky." However, it still grows into giant dunes in my tank, it still blows out of the corners easily, and even if I turn down and tweak my powerheads, it still manages to put a light dusting of sand everywhere on the rocks within a few days.

I don't want this for my new tank; I just want something easy that looks decent and stays put. I'm thinking of buying one bag of all the sands and just experimenting with them, but I'd rather save the trouble if anyone has a recommendation they'd like to share.

Thanks!

Ben

[jdieck]

You can use coarse aragonite (Like ARM media) or try cruched coral but if you plan gpbies they might need finer grade sand

[starseed]

I would just look for a slightly larger sand size from what you have OR buy substrate that is NOT poruse (didn't spell that right).

I would not go from the smallest to the largest - just get the largest size that won't fly around.