a cup of sand, please?

[mikenegue]

I wanted to thank everyone for the wonderful advice and help in getting prepared for our first fish tank -- this really is a great community. If you hadn't seen my other post, I just bought a used 60 gallon acrylic tank & stand that I'm giving to my wife as a gift. We just cleaned it out and it's sitting empty in our living room at the moment. We want to set it up as a FOWLR saltwater tank with a clownfish, a several tangs and a few other low-maintenance fish and critters.One of the pieces of advice (quite appropriate for a tight graduate student budget) is to buy mostly "dead" sand and rock and to seed it with "live" sand and rock that local reefers would be willing to share with me.

*First of all, will this really work? javascript:emoticon(':wink:')

*Secondly, do you have a cup of live sand/rock that I could borrow (I'd be willing to return to cup of sand/rock back to you after I've seeded my sand/rock)? javascript:emoticon('')


If you've got some live sand or rock that you could part with, I'm in Hollywood, so the closer you are the better. Of course I'd be willing to drive a reasonable distance to get to where you are. Thanks again for helping us get started.


[email protected]

 

[Reef Guy11]

I could give you some sand I have a 6" DSB on my FOWLR tank. Just don't look at my reef tank at the moment, it is still recovering from a Crash. PM me or E-mail me and I will give you direction on how to get to my house in Palm Springs, CA that is.

 

[mikenegue]

thanks for the offer... I'll email you about it. is there anyone else in the LA area that could loan me a cup of sand (which I will return enriched by the cumulative biodiversity of all the cups of sand added to the mix).

 

[Anonymous]

That absolutely will work.

But you don't have to go nuts looking for sand.


If you're buying rock, the critters in the rock will seed the sand. If you want to use dead rock (this works if it's agrocrete or quality limestone, which I used 40 pounds of in my current reef as base rock and looks fine), you still have to buy at least 15-25% of the total rock weight as real live rock in order to get enough diversity of organisms and this rock will seed the dead rock and the dead sand.

You'll find that you have a lot more trouble finding suitable dead sand, like south down, than you do finding a friendly reefer to give you a cup. :wink:

PM me and I'll give you directions to my house...if you drive the 3,000 miles I'll give you two cups of sand. :lol:

 

[mikenegue]

lol, manny...

how about we each drive 1,500 miles and meet halfway -- I will give you a cup of Southern Cal sand and you give me a cup of Miami sand? we'll definitely get some biodiversity that way!

 

[ricky1414]

I just bought a used 60 gallon acrylic tank & stand that I'm giving to my wife as a gift.

Just outta curiosity, did you buy that 60 gallon acrylic and stand from this guy selling it on the recycler web site? if you did, I hate you, you baztard!!! just kidding, but i did wanna buy it. 8)

Another question, completely off topic, sorry... where are you getting your post grad education at? I start in the fall, so I have a little free time for my reef and such before all hell breaks loose. :lol:

 

[mikenegue]

Does anyone else in the LA area have a cup of sand that I could borrow to seed my dsb?

thanks...