Help with Sand Questions

[WayneL]

I'm bumping up my sand bed in my tank and I want some information. I currently have a fuge with a DSB of approximately 5 inches. I also want to increase the depth of the sand in my main tank which is currently only about 2 inches at the most.

I have a 150 gallon tank with LR several mushrooms, polyps, finger leather and bubble coral. Fish include two yellow tangs, Purple Pseudochromis, Green Wrasse (I know he needs to come out), two coral banded shrimp, several turbo snails, a purple brittle star and a spiny brown banded star (don't know exactly what kind of stars).

The sand I currently have in the bottom of my tank is CaribSea, Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand, which is 1-1.7 mm diameter grain size.

Now for the questions:

1. When adding should I add more of the size sand that is already in the tank or should I add something smaller like Oolitic sand which I believe to be around 0.2-1.2mm diameter grain size?

2. When you do water changes do you vacume the sandbed as well or do you just leave it alone. I have always (2 years) vacumed the sand bottom.

3. Do you need "sand sifters" or once the sand bed is "alive" is that all you need? I have some denitro kits coming for my fuge which should help to seed the existing bed as well as the fuge.

4. I've heard pros and cons about rinsing the sand before putting it in. I'm of the opinion that you can't "overrinse" is that true?

I've read a lot of post here about DSB's but would appreciate your help. I really don't want to go too deep in the tank because I don't neccissarilly like how it looks but I was going to go up to about 4 inches.

Any help would be appreciative. FYI - I'm going to slowly add the new sand to the existing tank through some PVC to minimize the cloudiness.

 

[Roach]

Well I think you could put the oolitic in and be just fine. I added some sand to my established tank awhile ago and it went just fine. I took a measuring cup and slowly dropped it in. It was a mess for awhile but it cleared up with no problems. I have vacumed the sand bed on occassion but only if there is a build up on the sand or some cyano.
You could add some cucumbers to stir things up but I would wait to add starfish until the rest of the new sand bed is established otherwise they'll eat all the little critters in it. Hope this helps some.

 

[Reef Fever]

A lot of people seem to be down on the Arag-alive "Live" sand, but it really is easy to add to an existing system without milking up the water. It looks nice too. I found it for $19.99 per bag. I wouldn't pay the prices some are asking for it, but I cannot stand the milky water and I am very impatient.

 

[2poor2reef]

Wayne, you didn't specifically say why you are increasing the depth of the bed in the main tank but I assume it is to help with reducing nitrates in your water column. If that's true and you are going for only 4 inches of depth then you definitely want to add oolitic sand.

I never vac the sand bed and if you're going with oolitic on top then you really can't unless you don't mind removing a part of the bed each time. An adequate and balanced clean up crew should keep your sand bed healthy and relatively clean. I use bristle and terebellid (spaghetti) worms, cerith and nassarius snails, as well as conchs and cukes in larger systems. They work great in combination.

The problem with rinsing is that the really fine silt that you lose is useful to your bed. But if you don't rinse you will end up with some debris. Tough call. My opinions only.

 

[Anonymous]

i've used the oolitic- it might be a good idea to mix it a bit with a grain just a bit larger of aragonite based stuff,to avoid to much compaction(not sure)i would definitely advise you rinse the oolitic at least a bit, it can be VERY dusty, or, let it soak awhile in some (salt) water, and pour it through a tube(1" airlift rigid with a plastic funnel at the top works great) directly to the bottom of your tank, to avoid covering everything in dust.

 

[WayneL]

Well I think I have my plan in place.

I will add the Oolitic sand after I rinse it by putting it in a 5 gallon bucket and running water for a considerable amount of time. I will then add it through a PVC pipe (Just because I have to add a consideralbe amount because of the size of my tank) to try and reduce the cloudiness of the water.

One more question.....how much oolitic sand do I need to add two inches to my existing sand bed in a 150 gallon tank.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.purearagonite.com/SandBed.html

You might try this link. It is a sand bed calculator. It will tell you the number of pounds needed.

They base it upon 90 lbs per cubic foot.