depth of substrate

[JohnnyOneBeat]

hello everyone,
I was wondering what depth of substrate I should use in a 90gal tank for yellowheaded jawfish. I was thinking about about 6+ inches I didn't have an undergravel filter and was wondering if that will cause problems.

Thanks for your time,
John

 

[reefrunner69]

If you use a very fine grain sand, like the ever popular SouthDown/Old Castle and make sure you keep a sand fauna population, it shouldn't be a problem at all.

 

[Jasonv81]

substrate?

what about crushed Puka (sp?) shell....does that need an undergravel filter?

 

[loganj]

I wouldn't recommend a UGF for any SW tank. As long as you have 1 1/2-2lbs of LR per gal, a DSB, and a good skimmer, that's really all the filtration you need. I think the sugar size sand will work best for the jawfish and certainly is what you'll need to do the DSB.

 

[reefrunner69]

The problem with larger grainsizes, is that they will trap detritus and cause nitrate spikes in the tank. With the smaller grain sizes this is not as large a problem, also the infauna needed to keep the sandbed alive will not live in that large a grain size.

 

[JohnnyOneBeat]

I currently bought 80 lbs of CaribSea Aragonite, and 30 lbs of florida crushed coral there aragonite is a pretty small grain size but and the coral is fairly larger more like gravel. The Jawfish are going to need different size pieces to make there borrows structurally stable. My current filtration is two Emperor 280 Power Filters, two Aqua Clear 402 Power Heads. Also I'm working on a DIY wet/dry filter because my tank came with three drilled bulkheads.

John