Silly Question

[Lorna]

Okay this may sound silly. How many pounds of sand do I need to create a 3-4" dsb in a 75G tank that is 48" long by 18" wide? and is 3-4" of sand enough to create a good working dsb?

 

[wayne]

Reefcentral has a calculator. 3 to 4 inches is traditionally considered minimal thickness but there's no real evidence for this

 

[1979camaro]

don't hold me to this, but i would imagine somewhere between 150 and 200 pounds...i would check out the calculator though

 

[Lorna]

Okay according to reefcentral I will need 150 lbs, I will be getting 75 lbs of live sand and the other 75 lbs I will use play sand? which goes down first the play sand with the live sand on top?

 

[aresgod]

you could use play sand but i think it might be a better idea overall to get some cheap dry sand specifically made for fishtanks, alot of play sands have silicates and other stuff you dont want in your tank in them, might be a little more pricy but in the long run i think a better idea

 

[jammerz]

i wouldnt use play sand.....from experience its not as refined as aquarium sand..

 

[KahluaZzZ]

any tough on Flamingo reef sand ? Wanna buy a 40 pound pouch but it's pricey

 

[JEP]

Lorna you want to put down the live sand last, as the top layer.

 

[1979camaro]

i dont know anything about flamingo sand im afraid...as far as the live sand if you are going to buy the stuff in the bag you are wasting your money (in my opinion). you would be much better off buying a cup full from another reefer or the LFS

 

[aresgod]

agreed most LFS sell it by the pound but it is pricy, just buy 140lbs of dry sand(not play sand preferably) and add 5-10lbs of live sand and you should be all set

 

[dbacksrat]

if you can find the play sand commonly named "Southdown", use that--its availability varies according to your location...I haven't heard too much bad talk about the use of this play sand

 

[KahluaZzZ]

yeah i heard of it when i wanted to start my tank. Was looking maybe to get white one..hard to get in here...called everywhere

 

[KahluaZzZ]

got very low nitrates so why should i buy live sand? Already have a "not deep" crushed coral bed full of life. I understand live sand would give me more surface to grow bacteria but if it isn't a necessity, why bother ?

 

[Lorna]

The reason I said "playsand" was that on another forum they say to use playsand, preferrably Southdown and seed this with the live sand. I will get some of that and put it down and put the 75lbs of live sand on top of it. Thanks for the input everyone.....

 

[KahluaZzZ]

well i bought the aragonite flamingo reef..nice color and fine .. it holds over my CC ..milky tank for now

 

[1979camaro]

did you put it on top of the CC? if so the CC will eventually rise to the top of the sand...

 

[KahluaZzZ]

yep i did...but still i just put like 15 % of the bag over it. Wait a little bit and then put more

 

[KahluaZzZ]

my CC is small grain.

 

[dbacksrat]

got very low nitrates so why should i buy live sand? Already have a "not deep" crushed coral bed full of life. I understand live sand would give me more surface to grow bacteria but if it isn't a necessity, why bother ?

if it's not broke, why fix it? my CC is the same--i would love the switch it to a finer grade of sand, but if it works, why bother?

 

[dbacksrat]

i just replied to this thread, but AO-freakin-L did something crazy when I hit "Back" on a different page twice (so my reply disappeared)--I swear AOL is going to give me high blood pressure/homicidal thoughts

back to sand: my shallow CC is just like yours KahluaZzZ (shallow and full of life)--if it's not broke, why fix it? I would love to put down some finer grained sand, but I don't want to risk throwing off my whole system