Poll: Your experiences with live sand beds

[Anonymous]

Sharkky- I have moved to indy, and am almost done with the new tank stand. I plan on plumbing the tank, RO unit, FW reservoir, SW mixing tank, sump, pumps, etc this weekend. I hope to start filling it this weekend also. It should take at least a week to fill with the RO unit running full blast.

Ernie

Schweet! What part of town did you end up in? I'll have to sneak out and see the setup sometime! I'm looking to start construction on the stand for my 125 hopefully next week.

 

[ChrisRD]

I agree with Louey and Sharkky - the Southdown can be a PITA in a tank with high flow.

 

[Anonymous]

just how fine is Southdown? i have never seen it and i hear a lot of griping about the clouding.

i am rebuilding my setup with new sand and went with a sugar sized grain all the way through.

last time i had caribsea's "special grade" which i believe is for plenums along the first inch+ than topped with the sugar sized for the last few inches.

i did the special grade stuff because it was the finest i could find at the time (i didn't know sheit and i was also computerless)

i had no problems with current/ sand stirring before but it was evenly distributed with a gazillion powerheads. this time i will be using a single pump. will i have problems?

 

[esmithiii]

Sharkky- I am in Westfield (near Carmel, in N Indy.)

As for SD clouding, I had a ton of flow in my tank and never had a problem once the bacteria got established.

Ernie

 

[ChrisRD]

The system I'm running with the Southdown DSB has been up for about a year now so I think the bacteria is established. I'm not having a clouding issue and I don't think that's what Louey and Sharkky were referring to.

I've always struggled to find ways to get the amount of flow I want while keeping the DSB in-place. Every time I make an adjustment the bed just reshapes. Always seems to be kicking a certain amount of fine particles onto corals and the rockwork.

I've experimented with several different circulation systems to try to get the right blend of flow without too much velocity so as not to kick the DSB around. If I use Southdown again in an SPS tank I will cover it with a layer of live sand (or some other product with less fines in it).

 

[fsa]

I've had mine set up for about 4-5 months now. Sandblasting sand. I love the sand bed. Before this, I had a 4 in cc substrate over a plenum. I liked that one, too. It did fine, but because of all of the ballyhoo about dsb's, I had to try it. Glad I did. I think it's much better for worms, etc, which I like.

regards, fsa

 

[esmithiii]

Four people voted negatively about sand beds. I would love to hear from them about their experiences/opinions.

Ernie

 

[Anonymous]

Sharkky- I am in Westfield (near Carmel, in N Indy.)

As for SD clouding, I had a ton of flow in my tank and never had a problem once the bacteria got established.

Ernie

Hey that's awesome. I'm on the opposite end of the world--greenwood on the south side--but we'll definitely have to get together sometime! Westfield is only about 40 min away; Kel and I used to play soccer up there all the time.

 

[esmithiii]

Cool. I work in Plainfield, so I head your way every day.

Looking forward to meeting you one of these days.

Ernie