Right sand size.
- Thread starter Joe Fish
- Start date
I have about 100lbs in my 75 and it give it about 5"- 6" in depth which my diamond gobie is constantly moving from one side to the other side.....amazing how much sand that little guy moves. In my 20g I have about 50lbs and it has a good 6" bed.
For proper denitrification using a deep sand bed method you need at least 4-5 inches and the smaller the grain size the shallower your sand bed can be. You will want to get something that will turn the sand over and keep it clean. I have a black sea cucumber that is constantly cleaning my sand, the sand gobie and about 50 nassarius snails. My sand is nice and clean and you can see it is working as the nitrogen bubbles up through the sand.
For proper denitrification using a deep sand bed method you need at least 4-5 inches and the smaller the grain size the shallower your sand bed can be. You will want to get something that will turn the sand over and keep it clean. I have a black sea cucumber that is constantly cleaning my sand, the sand gobie and about 50 nassarius snails. My sand is nice and clean and you can see it is working as the nitrogen bubbles up through the sand.
make sure that you have enough depth to perform the denitrification and I would be very leary about buying any type of sand sifting starfish as these need a large well established sandbed to thrive, most starve to death and decimate the sandbed in the process. I think you are on the right track by checking everything out as you go. If I had to do it over again I would build pvc racks to hold my rock up off the sand though.
Placing the sand in after the rock allows the rock to have something to be locked in place by. You'd be surprised by the amount of destruction that comes about from tumbling rock. All it takes is fish to dig a little bit on one side of a rock that is sitting on the surface.
Another method to anchor rock is to place sand, then push (with as much of your bodyweight as you can) the rock into the sand.
I know for sure the first method works, not sure about the second, but it sounds possible.
Another method to anchor rock is to place sand, then push (with as much of your bodyweight as you can) the rock into the sand.
I know for sure the first method works, not sure about the second, but it sounds possible.
I would make a raised square of 1" pvc that would hold the rocks above the sand. One for each side of the tank as the rock I have are three large (25lbs+) each. Or else look into those shelves that they use for kitchen cupboards and shorten the legs of them and place the rock on those, fill in the bottom with sand? that would work too...especially if you had smaller rock. This way my gobie could remove the sand from under the rock at his hearts content........When I set up I put the sand in then added cured rock later. I dug down to bare glass and placed the rock in and back filled around the rock....needless to say gobie has removed most of the sand from under the rocks but as they are so large they are not unstable. good thing.