Real live sand.

[Scoopy]

Hey guys, new to the forum. I haven't had a marine aquarium for about 8 years. When I got out of it, wet/dry was the going thing. From reading here now, I see that this is no longer the case. Now the thing seems to be deep sand bed and live rock. Here is my question. We make a trip to the local beach a couple times a year. Would it be good or bad to take a few 5 gallon buckets with lids and bring back some sand from the ocean? Im thinking going out far enough where the tide never dissappears and filling up about 3 of them with sand to start my tank with. Im planning on getting a 75 gallon. I really dont want to start until I have everything I need, but this is one question maybe someone can help me with.

Thanks
in advance,
Scoop

 

[ChrisRD]

Hi Scoopy and welcome to Reefs.Org. Personally, I've never tried this, so I couldn't offer much advice, but I think if you do a search you'll find that this topic has come up several times in the past.

 

[cdeakle]

What location did you want to get the LS from?

DSB's (Deep Sand Bed) are actually not the hot thing anymore. It is a highly debated topic but more and more people are ditching DSB's and going either BB (Bare Bottom) or very little sand , 1-2 inches.

I myself decided to go BB and I'm slowly sucking up my sand bed with regular water changes.

If you know any fellow reefers in the hobby you can always get a few cups of LS from them and seed your sand. Over time your sand will all become LS. With getting LS from the beaches you can potentially add unwated bacteria etc...

 

[Anonymous]

no substrate at all, 420? i think that looks so tacky. you should put down an inch or two at least.

 

[fredso2003]

I have a crushed coral subsrate bed,and no its not a "NITRATE FACTORY" like alot of reefer's say,I just siphon some of it periodically during partial water changes and my nitrate levelsever get over 10-15ppm max.I started with the c/c bed and im keepin it.I know its not the hot "trend" but then again I go with what works for me,not what everybody else is doin,just my 2 cents.............

 

[cdeakle]

no substrate at all, 420? i think that looks so tacky. you should put down an inch or two at least.

I used to have a bb when I first got into the hobby. It actually kicked ass and looked really good. Once the purple coraline takes over it really looks awesome!

I currently have a 1-2 inch sand bed but I'm slowly removing it now for two reasons:

1) Due to my current algae problems its much easier to just suck it out along with the sand.

2) Due to my high flow in the tank no detrious or particles have a chance to accumulate anywhere, my skimmer will pull out more gunk.

8)