MORE SAND

im gonna add my 2 cents here

sorry wrasseman i have to agree with greesham on this one. ive actually added both to an established tank and had no effects with either one. ive added both carib sea and dried aragonite to my tank now and my 38 i had before and had no extra effects on either one. ive actually got about 4 different sands mixed in my sand bed believe it or not.

if adding dry sand i would take it and soak it for a day or to in some water it cuts down on the dust that it will add to the tank. both the live and dry sand (in bucket) i used a plastic cup scooped it out and got it as close to the bottom as possible and slowly poured the sand out. it will still cloud but if you have a filter run it, helps clean out the cloudiness u do get mine was gone within a day.

 

Hey guys I just got a 10lb bag of live sand. I haven't put it in yet, I'll wait for a day off from work. I'm gonna cut a very small hole in one corner, and do the pastry decorator method, as described on the 1st page of this thread. I'll let ya know how it goes.(worried most about "clouding"!)

 

[quote author=david link=board=ASAP;num=1055197640;start=15#21 date=06/16/03 at 23:56:43](worried most about "clouding"!)[/quote]

I didn't experience any clouding, much to my surprise. Hopefully you won't either, eh?

 

Lamotte or Hach for test kits. I use Lamotte, they cost more, but they're true scientific kits. If you testing calcium with a seachem calcium test kit, only use seachem calcium supplements. All other brands are pretty much compatable.

How'd the sand go? 10lbds, was it a pre-pachkaged deal, or bagged at a store (or e-tail place)? If the later, get it into your tank within 48 hours of purchase. The pre-packaged stuff has a shelve life of a year I belive, I haven't worked retail in a few years, so I might be wrong on the shelve life of it.

 

Well, Yesterday I put the 10 lbs. live sand in the tank! It was very easy. I cut a small hole in the corner, witch I kept makin' bigger cuz the sand would clog and stop flowin'. I just cake decorated it around where I wanted it, and voila. There was very little clouding and of what there was it settled within the hour!! The tank lights havent come on yet today but everything looks good in the dark.Even the peppermint shrimp is extra bold this morning. Walking from the rock out onto the sand. I'm sure he will dissappear as soon as the light comes on though. Here is something interesting when I put in the sand yesterday and a little sand was swirling in the tank out came a giant feather duster I thought long gone????I mean I haven't seen this guy since I first put this piece in the tank. Was it the sand moving that brought him out? Well he's gone once again. I wonder how long it will be before I see him again? Maybe I'll try target feeding him and see what happens with that! Also just in case any body is wonderin' the sand I used was nature's ocean. It had a shelf life of 9 months and a use by date on the back of the bag. My sand bed is still all deep in some spots thinner in others, but I think one more 10lbs. bag would bring me up to a good 3 1/2 " over all. I'll wait and make sure all is well so far before I add any more.
Thanks for the help every body!!!!

 

Glad to hear it went ok. Keep us posted!

 

David,

Glad your expeience was similar to mine and that the "cake decorating" technique worked well for you. As Matt said, do keep us posted!

 

Hi everyone I just got another 20lbs. bag of sand and added that to my tank. my bottom (-haha-) is finally lookin as I think it should. When I measure the sand with a ruler and take away the 1/4" for the glass my sand bed is still only like 3 1/2" deep. It does look pretty good now I gotta say. It seems like I have alot in there. There is 20lbs of crushed coral on the bottom with 20lbs. of pink samoa sand on that. And now 30lbs. of live sand on top of that. Thats 50lbs. of substrate in a 55 gal. tank. Is that normal or have I got too much in there?

 

You should be in great shape. A recent study by Rob Toonen showed that there was adequate denitrification with a 2" sand bed.

 

Lately dsb are getting a bad rap. so why add sand?