Do I have too much substate?

[S14_Silvia]

I just got my 75 gallon setup last weekend and aquascaped with base rock yesterday. My question is if I used too much aragonite for the bottom. I got (2 )45 lb. bags of the CaribSea seafloor, and all in all I put in about 70 lbs. After aquascaping I noticed that my original 2" bed ended up growing to around 3 1/2- 5 inches in places. Is this too deep for a FO tank that will host a 3" picasso trigger and some other small, less messy tankmates. Such as a flame hawkfish, a 6 line wrasse, and maybe a yellow watchman goby....if I can get away without him being eaten by my trigger.


So should I take out some of the aragonite or will I bo ok. I just want to do this tank right from the start. Help me out if you can

[otolith]

If your tank is going to be a fish only tank, then you should be ok. You'll probably have some nitrates present at all times considering your fish are messy eaters, and you'll have to do a fair amount of vacuuming of the substrate to keep the detritus down. Otherwise, in a FO it doesn't really matter, IMO.

[S14_Silvia]

I would like to get away from vaccuming, since my siphon sucks up the substate. Plus I'm at about 1300 GPH for flow so I have plenty of water movement to keep the detritus suspended, but I could be wrong.....opinions? Would taking out about 15-20 lbs. really do me all that good, or will I have problems with a deeper bed?

[otolith]

Regardless of how much flow you have in your tank, detritus will collect in your tank, on your rocks, and in your sand bed. I have approx around 10,000gph (soon to be more) of flow in my 180, and detritus still collects. The easiest to take care of would be no substrate (edit, it said detritus). Again, you probably won't be able to get away from siphoning your sandbed, it will collect junk.

[S14_Silvia]

Sounds good I was hoping to keep the deeper sand bed. Thanks

[tdwyatt]

Nicest thing about DSB's in FO systems is that the act as denitrification compartments as they become estabished and mature. In FO systems, there are no issues with phosphate accumulation in the sand bed, even when the substrate eventually reaches saturation, regular water changes will remove whatever phosphate leaches back into the water column, and if it becomes problematic, just remove via siphoning and replace the sand (half one month, half in 2 more months).


Many opinions out there, if it is in the tank, and it's already paid for, why not use it?


HTH

[Skipponator]

Get a Sea Cuke, it'll eat up some stuff for ya. I would htink you would be fine also. I've got 200lbs of sand sitting in my 90. It will eventually settle down a bit.