The right substrate??

[djordje]

What sort of substrate is recommended for a reef aquarium and what depth? I am setting up a 125 gallon and value your help. What about live sand? How many pounds would you recommend for this tank?

Thanks,
Alex

[Markus]

You should search this forum for Bare bottom vs. deep sand bed threads. Thats what I did and there is a plethera of information to read.

[Twitterbait]

Here is the master thread to read. I am going BB soon.

[wharyat]

If you plan on going DSB or SSB; use dead sand. The sand will turn "live" within the first month of being exposed to LR.

[seshapir]

I personally like the look of the SSB. I don't like the way BB looks, and I don't want the potential hassle of a DSB. I have a 2" sand bed in my 150g. the footprint is 60X24 and it took 4 40lbs bags to get 2 inches. I hope that helps a little! It really comes down to what goals you want to achieve with your sand bed and what look your prefer.

[Twitterbait]

2" seems to be the average.

[djordje]

Thanks for the help. Do you have your live rock sitting on top of the sand, or on top of the bottom glass and the sand around it?

[Kevin1000]

I suggest you stay away from any "master threads" debating DSB and BB's - those issues are complicated and most DSB/BB threads are occasionally filled with insight as well as ignorance - often combined with excess hormones. I have yet to fully distinguish the ignorance vs the insight.

In general your looking for a finer grained sand bed .. that's because crushed coral and similar substrates tend to collect debris which can deteriorate water quality. A smaller grained substrate is also capable of harboring more beneficial bacteria.

If this is your first tank then I suggest you stick with a shallow sand bed .. a DSB works for many but the issues associated with a DSB take some reading and perhaps some additional money to make it work. Any sand bed less than 4" is generally considered a SSB .. most SSB are 3" or less.

As I recall Garf.org has a calculator that will give you the approximate number of lbs of sand to obtain a specific depth of sand bed given the measurements of any tank .. might be helpful.

Good luck.