Live Sand Questions

[Keeperofthereef]

Hello fellow Reefers!

I'm starting a new salt water aquarium and I'm looking at Carib sea live sand. I was wondering how deep the sand bed should be for sand borrowing creatures and fish (2", 2.5", 3")? Also, I was wondering what size of sand is recommended for the same reason(s) above? However, I was wondering do you put any thing special on the bottom of the tank or all live sand throughout? and lastly, is it allowed to mix different grades/types of sand together? (same brand name)

Tank size 24 gallon L19.75" x W13" x H17.5"
looking at: fiji pink - a good choice? or not?


Thanks everybody!

[JustPhish]

You can do whatever you like in your own tank. No need for permission to mix sands. keep in mind though that smaller grained sand will rise to the top and the bigger grained stuff will settle to the bottom over time. Also depends on the difference in grain size. I happen to like the regular Carib-Sea aragonite myself.

How deep it should be depends on the things you want to keep. Yellow headed jawfish will need a sand bed closer to a foot to really feel at home. Wrasses and gobies that burrow into the sand or live in it would be ok with several inches. Nassarius can do just fine with enough to cover themselves. Cucumbers and conch live either at the surface or just below for conch. Situation dictates.

You also don't need all live sand. Regular bagged sand poured in and then topped off with a few cups of sand from your local stores established tanks or friends, or perhaps fellow club members would be a more cost efficient way to go about things unless you were getting the live sand for a good price. Even then a bagged live sand will probably only contain bacterias where sand locally from established tanks is more likely to have stars, copepods, etc etc.

HTH
JP

[inwall75]

Their live sand is fine. You pay a LOT of extra money for it. If you are patient, you can use their non-live sand and seed it but it will take longer for the bacteria to establish. You can also mix their regular sand and live sand with no problem. (If you do, put the live sand on top).

As far as depth is concerned, you need to let us know what sand-burrowing critters you want to keep. I.e. a pistol shrimp/goby, a jawfish, etc. A lot of different animals have different needs. For instance, you could use all LS Fiji Pink for a pistol shrimp but if you wanted a jawfish, I would recommend that the non-live sand you use be smaller like ESV sand, Southdown (if you can find it), etc.

[inwall75]

LOL....Great minds think alike JP.

Except, I've found the exact opposite with the larger/smaller grains. In my tanks, the smaller grains fell and the larger ended up on the top over time.

[JustPhish]

Yeah that's what I meant. The smaller fall between the larger and go to the bottom.

[Kentanner11]

cool good info!