Playsand and/or LS vs. CC Whats your favorite & why?

[jeffw85]

4 days until I load my new Oceanic 175G

Reading thru the forum here and now wondering if I should use sand only for my substrate. If I do I will certainly mix live and playsand. How do gobies like the sand? How deep should I make it and should I rinse the playsand first? I would much prefer a white sandy bottom instead of cc if there are no downfalls. Please let me know and thanks again--I love this forum- A wealth of knowledge

Jeff W

Evansville, IN

 

[jackdp]

Reading thru the forum here and now wondering if I should use sand only for my substrate

I would use only the sand. It is prettier and does not require as much maintenance as CC.

How do gobies like the sand?

The gobies will do great in the sand as they sift it to feed and also move it around to make homes.

How deep should I make it and should I rinse the playsand first?

If you are going for a deep sand bed, shoot for at least 4-5 inches of depth, to determine how much sand you need use the calculator under the calculator tab above on this page. I wouldn't worry about rinsing, any small particles will be filtered out or settle over time. HTH

 

[kidkameleon3]

all my gobies love hte sand I hae had crushed coral only before and the cleaning was nearly impossible. With sand it jsut turns the stuff in well sand I geuss. As for the mixed idea I bet you could get away with it

 

[dralarms]

Welcome to AA. I have to agree, go with the sand, if you use cc then crap falls down into the cracks and causes nitrates, with the sand most of the time your critters dispose of it in natures own way. I would get some dry sand and seed it with some ls, don't buy the "bagged live sand" it's junk. basicily it's wet sand. liverocks.com sells true live sand, and you can find some other aquarium people in your area to "trade off" on soem sand, which will help to diversify your system. HTH