Tank reconstruction... (adding sand)

[cbianco]

Hello all

My tank specs are in my signature.

I want to add sand to my tank. I am currently at a sand depth of about 2 inches. I have always liked the look of a deeper sand bed. I want to add enough sand until it is about 4 inches deep. I am not doing this to gain denitratfication (sp?) benefits, I just really like the way it looks.

My questions are:

Will I have any difficulties having such a deep sand bed in this tank?

How can I make my rock more stable? (I imagine that the LR will sink into the sand.)

Anything I am missing here?

Thanks for the help!

Christopher

EDIT: I would probably use live sand such as the live sand at Fin-Addicts.

[chrismikea]

do it. my rock is really stabble. i just leave the rock in its place and poor the sand around it.

[gjuarez]

I would remove all the sand as well, but it all depends what you are going for. I like sand beds, I just dont like maintaining them. They have to be siphoned frequently. I removed mine and I have had great results, but what worked for me might not work for you. Can you give us more specs of your tank? WHat type of corals are you keeping? FLow? anything you can think of.

[cbianco]

chrismikea

If I pour the sand just around my rocks, then they will dissapear. I have to buy more live rock also. Unfortunately, I can only do one step at a time.

Joshua

I love your sense of sarcasm! I have tons of life in my sand so that is not a problem. I am shying away from using pvc to hold my rock work because it is ugly and hard to hide entirely.

And yes I am missing two inches of sand.

gjuarez

I don't mind cleaning the sand once in a while. Are we talking syphoning only or stirring also?

I have a 24 gallon nano cube with 72 watts of CFL. Two Rio 600's create my water circulation. One of the Rio 600's is "Y'd" off to two seperate returns. My lighting cycle is currently at six hours (because of a recent bought of cyano, ask me if you are curious). I have no fish only soft corals and I am satisfied with this set up (for now). I feed my tank a steady diet of popcorn and beer, no sorry I feed nothing to my tank.

Hope this helps, keep the information flowing.

Christopher

[gjuarez]

I am curious. Did you say you bought cyano?

[cbianco]

Yeah thats what I said...

I meant "bout with cyano."

I do however have a 2 for 1 special on cyano right now! lol :)

Anyway, where were we?

:lol

[gjuarez]

lol. You should talk to Gary about sand beds, he knows a lot about them.

[cbianco]

I am afraid Gary is going to tell me what I don't want to hear. "No more sand," says Gary.

:lol

Gary where you at?

[demodiki]

I have a 4-6 inch sand bed and I have some big, clunky rocks on top of it...it hasn't sunk as far as I can tell.

[gjuarez]

IT wont. I never had it happened to me. I had to push them in a little actually.

[cbianco]

Just crush my hopes and dreams why don't you!

:lol

[Magneto]

I would tend to agree. That a 24 is gonna be difficult to keep up as a DSB. You need enough area to have a stable breeding population. You might get by with periodic recharges from starter kits tho. I don't know that there is a definative answer for this.

So do you want your tank to be an experiment?

[ratboy]

Im a longtime DSB user and advocate and agree that a 24 is probably too small for a properly functioning DSB. The smallest tank Ive been succesful keeping w/ a DSB is a 40 breeder that has been running for several years now but its a relativly low bioload tank(softies, zos, lps, carpet anenome, pair of Clarks clowns). BTW I dont really do any DSB maitnence other than add more sand over time as it disolves. I leave maitenence to cucumbers, crabs, snails, etc..

-ERIk

[cbianco]

Magento said,



So do you want your tank to be an experiment?


I'm thinking I will experiment and go against the odds. Everyone can tell me, "I told you so later."

I'm just a crazy guy.

[Magneto]

Since you are gonna do it then. Do you plan on adding all of it at once? I would think the safest way would be to add several layers. Just wondering if you might end up burying stuff if you drop too much in at once.

[gjuarez]

Good luck with it. Many great things have happened because people dared to experiment. Just make sure you dont shatter the test tubes.

[cbianco]

Magneto

I plan on adding layers. Yesterday I add ~10 pounds of sand. This brought my overall depth to about 2.5-3.0 inches. I hope to have about 4.5-5.0 inches when I am finished.

qjuarez

I appreciate the kind words. I hope not to, "shatter the test tubes." lol!

Joshua

I have seen the recharge kits at www.ipsf.com. If I am not mistaking they run $30 with a purchase $40 without a purchase. I am going to take a look at the kits from www.inlandaquatics.com as soon as I get done here. Thanks for the info!

Christopher