Perfect Sand Bed Setup

[kermit the krab]

I'm ready to buy my subsrtate. I was going to use 100% aragonite but I heard it's best to use 50% aragonite, 25% oolite(spelling?), and 25% aruba. Is this correct?

[cwa46]

I hope you do more research before you start or you will have some real problems. Take a look at these threads.... http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog...ek_090698.html http://sites.netscape.net/douglxyzzy/sandbed.html http://www.rshimek.com/

[Doug1]

Excellent link CWA definitely tagged for archives

[kermit the krab]

The info I'm giving is from another saltwater website recommendations. I'm thinking of going 100% with CaribSea Aragamax Oolitic Select. It's grain size is between 0.5 to 1.02. Has anyone had good luck with this sand?

[taddmc]

Hi,
I don't know if this is relevant, but here goes nothing. I used 15 lbs of aragonite, 10 lbs of dead sand, and 5 lbs of live sand when I set up my seahorse tank. It has been running for a month with this mixture and I have not had any problems. My tank is 25 gallons and that covered about 4 inches of the bottom. Did I do something wrong???

[cwa46]

You did nothing "wrong" if that is what you want. If you are making a DSB, then the particle size of the sand is very important. What size is the aragonite you used?

[Creek]

Uh ohh... I have just read Dr. Rons advice on the links above. I did the sand bed right in his opinion ( 4" deep with a mixture of rubble, larger sand (Caribsea floor), smaller sand(Caribsea Arragamax).I also added a live sand booster from IPSF a few days ago. The problem is I also have 4 sand sifting predators. A yellow watchman goby, orange diamond goby, dragon goby, and a white sand sifting starfish. Am I destined to have problems with nitrate if all the micro-fauna is beeing eaten? I really like all the mentioned animals as they are fun to watch. At night I have a red light on to observe and am seeing all kinds of little critter buggies (look like mini fleas or lice) on the glass even with the predators. Does anyone have an older tank with these sand sifters that has or hasn't had problems. Thanks

[Blake]

I used 40lb of CaribSea Aragamax Oolite. It works and looks beautiful. Only drawback is that it will turn the tank milky white for a day or more. Just relax and visuialize the rock inside of the white soup.