What order to add salt water, sand, rock?

[2nd timer]

What order to add salt water, sand, rock?

Ok - this may be a silly question......

When setting up my new 110g tank, what order do I add the sand, salt water, and rock? I will be using Southdown sand from Home Depot and Live sand. I've been told to put the rock in before the sand and also been told to put the sand in first. Which is true? Also, with all that sand floating around won't it fill up my filters? I've also heard NOT to rinse the sand, is this true? How do I keep from having sand all over the live rock?

Also, I've heard some complaints that Southdown is too light, will always be floating around my tank, is this true?

Thanks!

[Drew]

Hi there,

Congrats on your new tank! The SD sand you have is very good sand for a DSB, it is not too light. I use the same stuff in my tank. However, it will stay in suspension for a while longer than usual. i would not rinse it, just pour it in. It's really up to you whether or not to put the sand in before or after the rock. If you put the sand in first, you will have more of your rock exposed, if the rock goes in forst, it will be more stable. What kind of filters do you have on the tank that could get plugged up? Finally, yes, your rocks will be covered with the sand, you can blow the rocks off with a turkey baster easily though. Just remeber that until your sand is populated with bacteria and what not, it will be light and any little movement will stir it up. But once established, it makes a great sand bed. HTH

Drew

[Big Dave]

I agree with Drew. Don't forget though, if you put water in first and then rocks, leave room for the water displacement as you put the rocks in. Do your sand last IMO. It may take 2 or 3 times of 'dusting' your rocks. I went with rocks and then sand around the rocks and it is very stable. HTH

-Big Dave

[DaveJ]

Ohhh if only all of us could start from scratch again

Here is what I would do......

Fill half your tank up with water and put in your salt, figure about a cup per gallon maybe to start. Put the powerheads in and let it mix by itself. Put a heater in it too.

Once it's dissolved and warmed up. Put your rock base rocks in. This means the rocks you will build your rockscape on top of. OR....... you can build a PVC stand. You would do this to reduce the amount of rock needed, provide a solid support system and increase your DSB volume. A little more work and a bit more expense but the benefits will be there. I would do that given a chance to start over. IF not, then put your base rocks in and then put your sand in. Add your detrivore kits and let it start it's cycle. Then top off the system with more water (premixed with salt).

Check your salinity levels and chemistry once a day or every other day and adjust the salinity until its 1.025 or 1.026.

About 2 weeks later, put the rest of your rock in and arrange it like you want. I would do this for a couple of reasons. It will stretch the cost of the LR out over a bit more time (may be an issue may not be) and it will save you the trouble of cleaning your rock off all the time as the SD settles. It will also give you a chance to buy a variety of rock. Many places will sell you "base" LR for cheaper since it doesn't have a lot of coralline and other good stuff on it. It's cheaper and if its going to be under sand, no reason to shell out the extra money for all the coral, algae and sponges etc that come on the better stuff. Save the good stuff for the visible portions.

Now what to expect when you dump all the SD in?? As mentioned it will cloud up a lot, and I mean a lot. It will settled in a week though so don't have your powerheads on, just the heater and no pumps. Once it settles down and you get the rest of your rock in then turn on the powerheads and pumps and make sure all the flows and circulation is like you want it.

Then sit back and wait for the cycle to finish. Once that is completed, then add your clean up crew. Get yourself some nassarius snails, trochus and other such crew members. Refrain from hermits or cukes for the time being and maybe even brittle stars. Let those guys get settled before adding fish and other animals. Start planning on your livestock now though and when you will add them. Species will determine when and how many you add.

Lighting....... determine the lighting you need once it's fully stocked. You can get away with regular cheap lights at first, but once you start adding corals and clams etc, youll need Metal Halide. Don't need them until then though (another stretch the costs out over time move).

Skimmer..... won't need it until you start adding fish. Same cost stretching move.

Invest in a good test kit now though along with a good scraper and salinity tool (refractometer or pinpoint monitor). Maybe a PH monitor as well. The scraper and refractometer will be upfront investments. The PH monitor is for when/if you start with corals.

[ShirleyM]

Like Dave, we used PVC to keep the rock up off the sand for better circulation across the top of the sand. We cut cylinders of 3" PVC and pushed them into the sand, with just the tops barely showing. Then we put the rocks on these "supports" and made bridges from one to the other.

Order? We put the water in first, no salt. Made sure there were no leaks, that sort of thing. Made sure the plumbing all worked correctly. Then, added salt. (It took almost a week to add the water because we were making our own @ about 13 gal /day for a 120G) After adding the salt, we added the prewashed aragonite, added the PVC supports, then when the LR arrived we added that (uncured is how we did it). Last, we did a major water change, lightly vacuumed the sand, and aquascaped the LR.

Shirley

[karlas]

we got the water set up and let it circulate good. then got the rock mo and placed it in the tank and used that to cycle from the die off. then after the cycle added some fresh lr then after that put the sand in the tank. a lot of sand settled on the rock and used a turkey baster to blow the rock off. then last added a microfauna kit and let that go for 2 weeks. then it was ready for fish.

[FishDaddy]

This is one of those instances when there is more than one way to do it right! Here are some thoughts:

>Shirley's suggestion about the pvc supports is a good one; several have done this and it keeps more rock above the sand.

>You can mix your first batch of salt and water in the tank if you do it before you add the rock. I prefer to have the salt and water pre-mixed so that I can get the sand and rocks together first.

>Avoid putting the rock directly on top of the sand; the rocks will settle and landslides are a possibility! Make sure your rock structure is stable. Some have epoxied the rocks together but I don't recommend this as it makes rearranging later very difficult. Some have drilled holes through the rocks and inserted plastic rods to secure them; some use nylon ties. I just put mine together in a way that they are stable.

I put several inches of water in before adding the sand. This keeps dust down. I then added about half the sand, then wedged the rocks down til they just touched the bottom. This helps keep the base rocks stable and supports them while adding the rest of the rock structure. I then added the rest of the sand; a layer of live sand on top;and filled the tank. It will be very cloudy for a couple of days.

Here are some pics taken during the setup of a 38 for a baby Chainlink Moray a year and a half ago. "Spotty" is doing fine and is now about 14" long and ready for a larger tank.
First layer of sand and water:

[FishDaddy]

Next, the rocks and rest of sand have been added:

[FishDaddy]

Then the live sand is added to the top:

[FishDaddy]

All the sand, rock, and live sand are in to the ReefKeeper's satisfaction:

[FishDaddy]

This is how he looks now:


After the tank fully cycled, "Spotty" was introduced to his new home. This last pic is the day he went in the tank:

A simple setup but it worked out quite well.
HTH
Dick