More sand

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tntfish

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 22, 2009
Messages
251
ok guys my tank is 135 gallons and i want to put more sand in to it because i bought it from someone and it was moved from his house to mine and he didnt have to much sand in it so know i want to add some more is ther any reccomended sand or any way to put it in there
 
Yeah, use dry aragonite sand. Theres really fin granules, like sugar size, and then theres regular size sand like at the beach, and then theres oolite which isnt as fine as sugar sized sand, but its finer than the regular sand you find at the beach. They sell all of that stuff in most pet stores. And if theres water in there already and you dont want it to cloud you can use a pvc pipe to direct it down to the bottom without the sand getting caught in your tanks current, which would then make the water cloudy. You can also put the sand directly where you want it to go with the pvc pipe.
 
Dont forget to wash the sand well. Take a 5G bucket and fill half of sand and run water through til it runs clear.
 
Well, with live sand you still want to clean it well, because aside from the things you get in the live sand, there are decomposed organics still in the sand that you really dont want in your tank. Also, i would just skip the live sand, and just get all aragonite. Chances are whatever was in the live sand that was once live, is now dead since its been sitting on shelves for such a long time. Dont worry though, if you get aragonite, over time, from bringing in live rock and such, the sand will become live on its own. Its better this way.
 
Ditto, Live Sand is in the ocean not in a bag. You wouldnt buy fish sitting in a bag on a shelf for months at a time would ya.lol
 
Now that we are on the subject of live sand. My LFS guy told me that i should add some live sand (not from the bag, 2.99 a pound) to seed my sand and live rock.
I started a 90 gallon with uncured rock (100 pounds), which i doubt had any live stuff when i put it in the tank (i studidly rinsed half of the live rock with freshwater).
I only have 75 pounds of sand, should i add more live sand from the LFS, or is the sand that i have in there good enough.
The guy told me that if i want to have a reef tank i should have at least a 4" sand bed.
Any input?
 
Here we go again with these lfs people..

First off, hes right on how live sand NOT from a bag will seed your rock, AND your sand. But about the depth... NO. You dont NEED 4" for a reef lol. I've seen some bare bottom reef tanks, so i would think that you can have however much sand you want. It is all going to depend on whether you have livestock that like to burrow IN the sand, or not.. Then you will need a decent amount of sand for their needs. 2" or more, depending on what animals ofcourse. Usually gobies like 3" or more, but i hear that they will pile sand up to suit their needs.
 
Here we go again with these lfs people..

First off, hes right on how live sand NOT from a bag will seed your rock, AND your sand. But about the depth... NO. You dont NEED 4" for a reef lol. I've seen some bare bottom reef tanks, so i would think that you can have however much sand you want. It is all going to depend on whether you have livestock that like to burrow IN the sand, or not.. Then you will need a decent amount of sand for their needs. 2" or more, depending on what animals ofcourse. Usually gobies like 3" or more, but i hear that they will pile sand up to suit their needs.


Would it be safe if i add about 10 gounds of live sand to my tank. I have livestock in there already. i think i want to add some sand to seed my rock and sand, or should i just leave it alone and let it do it on it's own?
 
No it would be perfectly safe to add 10lbs of live sand to your tank. Thats how people get base rock to become live quicker. As well as sand, to become live sand.
 
yes adding the sand is fine. But it does matter how deep it is. If your sand bed gets to deep, (more than 5" or so) you start to get into anaerobic conditions where the sand doesnt get any oxygen and starts to build up nitrogen pockets. So you introduce the plenum system. Which can be beneficial. If you do go deep just make sure you have some sand sifting creatures in there.
DeepSandBeds
 
Yeap. Great link jessicasmarine. I didnt mean, however deep you want it as in like a 10" sand bed xD Within reason should be fine for sandbeds. My sand bed is at a depth of 2" in some places and 3" in others.
 
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