Sand question

[upcfault]

Well, after almost 3 months of planning, designing and setting up, I'm about ready to fill my tank. I've got 90 lbs of Kaelini rock coming in tomorrow and I can't wait. Ok, so now the sand question, the package says to rinse the sand before putting into the tank. Do I need to rinse it with RO/DI or can I use tap?
Also, since this is a brand new tank, I'll add the rock to the tank and cure it in there. Can I add live sand now or should I wait until it cycles?

[fattoni]

When i set up my tanks i go ahead and add lr and ls at the same time. it doesnt seem like its ls if they telly ou to wash it before its put in the tank...ive never heard of that. just my opinion, i add it all at once

Kris

[wanareef]

If it were me - I would put the sand in now and not worry about rinsing. It'll get murky, just keep your pumps on and it'll settle. Whatever floats to the surface, just skim off and toss. What kind of sand is it?

Now - do you have a "rack" for the LR to sit on? Or is it just going straight on the bottom of the tank? Or just sit on the sand? Wil it be a DSB or a SSB?

Don't worry about seeding the sand, the LR will seed it in time. Or you could get a cup of sand form several reefers nearby to kick-start it.

[Court Jester]

In the past I've added it before and let it cycle with the rock. Looking back, I should have let the rock cycle without the sand - instead adding it after the cycle. This would have let me circulate more water in the tank to help the cycle without worrying about the sand blowing all over the place. It also prevents the sand from locking up any phosphates generated during the cycle. It should also allow you to clean up any die-off and detritus after the cycle is complete. You can always add the sand after the cycle, just add 1" a week until you reach the depth you're looking for.

[Krux]

yeah what he said.


read the threads on phosphate in the think tank section of the board. there are pages and pages on info on sand and why you should add it later. if your sand is coming in dry, not as live sand, i would take the time to read those before you decide to throw it in.

**** you chewie, my eyes bled for 3 days after reading all that stuff, but it was worth it!

[upcfault]

The sand i'm talking about right now isn't live sand. It's your standard aragonite sand. The packaging said to rinse it first. I'm hoping to pick up some live sand this weekend at Woody's since it seems that from the reply's so far that it won't cause a problem.

[Krux]

well i will sum up about 500 posts worth of dialogue for you that will hopefully make what court jester said more clear. as your live rock cycles (it will, dont let any vendor tell you their stuff is pre cycled because shipping it to you kills stuff in it) erm, as it cycles, it will give off incredible ammounts of debris. this will come falling out of the rock in piles for the first couple months, maybe longer.


the problem with sand is that it is the same color as the stuff coming out of the rocks. by virtue of using sand instead of gravel, you will be unable to vacuume out this garbage (that is if you could even see it) and it will sit in the tank skewing your measurements and causing you to have an even longer cycle. the end result, after it finally does cycle, will be a nutrient laden system, especially high in phosphates (which are becoming a truly evil menace to reefers everywhere) which even with water changes, since the stuff is locked into the sand bed, will never go away.

long story short, put in rock. let rock de-crap its self. siphon the garbage out all the time. when no more comes out, then add sand. yippee clean water!

did i mention that your cycle will be cut drastically, and you can add in livestock even faster this way? everyone wins

[upcfault]

Thanks for the info. I'll wait to put in the sand. There seems to be a lot of people against the DSB now. What depths are you all using? I like the look of sand bottoms so will use at least an inch or two. Should I use more? Are DSB's not all they're cracked up to be? Everytime I think I know what I'm doing I stumble across conflicting info.

[funstarfish]

all i can say is my tank hs had 0 sand since january and i have great growth and decent coloration of everything. my nutrient levels are very low as is my algea. i just don't see that a deep sand bed creates any advantages. i do however understand the barebottom look is not for the average guy, but thats how my tank is run and i love it.

[chewie]

Originally Posted by Krux

**** you chewie, my eyes bled for 3 days after reading all that stuff, but it was worth it!

LOL! And all the fun is just beginning

Also keep in mind that not everybody wants a nutrient poor high flow SPS tank with enough light energy used to power up a small city for a year, kind of tank.

[Ryan Mackey]

Good info, many good points. The latest issue of Coral magazine has a great discussion on nutrient cycling and phosphate precipitation. The sand bed issue continues to rage, even here on the PNWMAS pages! Any method will have its good points and its bad; by the time you combine all the different methods into the total system, you hope to have included the positive attributes of each and excluded the negative. Use common sense and the experience of others. Remember that each of us have our own bias; for example, I prefer the shallow sand bed over the DSB or bare bottom, but all can and have worked well for others.

[Krux]

indeed chewie, my 4000 gphish flow in the 75 gallon tank might be more than most folks are looking for, certainly if you are running a lower flow tank, then bb due to sandstorm problems might not be the correct avenue.


if you like the look of sand, and have decided to look at alternatives to ssb and dsb (again, read the dsb threads in the think tank and get some ideas to help you decide one way or the other) you might want to check out graham's tank, which kind of gives you the best of both worlds. no substrate so you can keep your water pristine, but, well, take a look i don't want to spoil the suprise for you...

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...sand+starboard