Deep Sand Bed

[Dace]

Can i get some advice of ppl who know about deep sand beds. Which sand is best for having a deep sand bed about 6" to 8" deep in a mixed reef display tank.

 

[tosiek]

3-4" is the best for deep sand bed. going any more than 5" has a tendancy for the DSB to overload with waste and produce alot of Po4 with a chance to re-cycle the tank if you don;t have the sand sifter critters to support it right. Finer grain is better as its producing more surface area. Just just make sure the sand isn;t clumping up from calcium build up. You might have to play with the sand to check it every once in a while.

 

[NYreefNoob]

Dave You Seen My Other Tank And I Had A 5" Dsb With Plenty Of Nas Snails A Sand Sifting Star, And Cucumber, I Did Have A Problem With The Lower Part Of Sand Getting Hard Or Clumping, But Part Of It Was From The Evs Sand I Do Believe, Ill See If I Can Find The Article On Dsb's For You

 

[grisha]

hey guys im also thinking of going DSB road, but i want to do it in the sump fuge area....may be some one with the similar set up can share

 

[NYreefNoob]

grisha i now have on new tank a remote 10g with a 6" dsb and love it, no sand to get stirred in tank, plus my readings nitrate, nitrite, amonia are 0 and i like to feed my fish in my tank thread it shows a pic of how i did it

 

[grisha]

nice.. i thinck the area of the fuge will be 28x12 inches soi feel like i can go bare in my new tank

 

[jhale]

ok I just removed my fuge area from the sump to make more room to grow coral.

it was 13" x 15" and as deep as what ever a regular 55G tank is high.

it had a 7" sand bed that was in there for more than a year. I used a mix of carib sea sand that I got from different people. I had no sand sifters. There was a layer of silt about a 1/2" that I siphoned off. There was nothing nasty or smelly about the sand at all! It barely smelled and the sand looked almost brand new. above the sand was a ton of cheato and a huge colony of little feather dusters. I don't think the volume of the DSB was enough to make a difference, as I have been feeding heavy and the No3 has jumped up. It must have been doing something though as I never cleaned it and the sand was fine.

 

[lazibonez]

NYreefNoob, do you use sand sifters in your remote DSB?

grisha i now have on new tank a remote 10g with a 6" dsb and love it, no sand to get stirred in tank, plus my readings nitrate, nitrite, amonia are 0 and i like to feed my fish in my tank thread it shows a pic of how i did it

 

[Dace]

NYreefNoob, do you use sand sifters in your remote DSB?

Nassarius snails are sand sifters.

 

[drperetz]

....

I had a deep sand bed....
I experimented with 2 different sands.....

CORAL SEA and ESV(fine grain bought from HOF)

ESV WAS GREAT....AWESOME.... I still use it in my nano tanks...

 

[lazibonez]

Nassarius snails are sand sifters.

My bad, I didnt read properly. Thanks.