Question about sand/ crushed coral

[Brian McCarty]

Hi, just thought of another question. In my 55 G. tank, I placed 30 lbs. of
crushed coral substrate. I now would like to add live sand to this. Is
there any problem with placing 30 lbs.(possible more for a DSB) of live sand
directly ontop of the crushed coral? I'd like to find an answer to this
question before I purchase my live rock and sand. By the way, I 'm thinking
of ordering my live rock and sand from e Tropics.com
http://www.etropicals.com/default.cfm?siteid=40 Any opinions about this
company? Thanks folks. Appreciate any help.

Oh, just thought of adding some more info. for any of you that might like to
give some pointers. Here is the equipment I have ready to set up:

55 G. glass aquarium
200 W. submersible heater
Aqua C Remora skimmer with Maxijet 1200 powerhead
Maxijet 400 powerhead (water movement)
another powerhead (don't have the specs. on this right now)
Coralife Aqualight CF 260 watts - 2x Actinic and 2x 10,000K lights
(the above mentioned) 30 lbs of crushed coral
Test kit from Red Sea (tests pH, alkilinity, nitrates, ammonia, nitrites,
and I think phosphates (not sure about the last one though, the kit is at
school right now so I can't be sure).

I am planning on setting up a reef tank for my seventh graders. But before
adding corals and then a few fish, I would like to cycle my tank with
liverock and sand, and let this run for a month or so before adding anything
else. Does this sound like a good idea? Any questions or comments would be
appreciated. Thanks.


Brian McCarty

[Marc Levenson]

Brian, all looks good to me. You may find that your sand will settle through
the CC and end up under it unfortunately.

Be sure to teach your students to keep their hand out of the tank, and avoid
dropping in pennies and such, as it will poison your tank's inhabitants slowly,
which is cruel.

Marc


Brian McCarty wrote:

> Hi, just thought of another question. In my 55 G. tank, I placed 30 lbs. of
> crushed coral substrate. I now would like to add live sand to this. Is
> there any problem with placing 30 lbs.(possible more for a DSB) of live sand
> directly ontop of the crushed coral? I'd like to find an answer to this
> question before I purchase my live rock and sand. By the way, I 'm thinking
> of ordering my live rock and sand from e Tropics.com
> http://www.etropicals.com/default.cfm?siteid=40 Any opinions about this
> company? Thanks folks. Appreciate any help.
>
> Oh, just thought of adding some more info. for any of you that might like to
> give some pointers. Here is the equipment I have ready to set up:
>
> 55 G. glass aquarium
> 200 W. submersible heater
> Aqua C Remora skimmer with Maxijet 1200 powerhead
> Maxijet 400 powerhead (water movement)
> another powerhead (don't have the specs. on this right now)
> Coralife Aqualight CF 260 watts - 2x Actinic and 2x 10,000K lights
> (the above mentioned) 30 lbs of crushed coral
> Test kit from Red Sea (tests pH, alkilinity, nitrates, ammonia, nitrites,
> and I think phosphates (not sure about the last one though, the kit is at
> school right now so I can't be sure).
>
> I am planning on setting up a reef tank for my seventh graders. But before
> adding corals and then a few fish, I would like to cycle my tank with
> liverock and sand, and let this run for a month or so before adding anything
> else. Does this sound like a good idea? Any questions or comments would be
> appreciated. Thanks.
>
> Brian McCarty

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[Richard Reynolds]

> Hi, just thought of another question. In my 55 G. tank, I placed 30 lbs. of
> crushed coral substrate. I now would like to add live sand to this. Is
> there any problem with placing 30 lbs.(possible more for a DSB) of live sand
> directly ontop of the crushed coral? I'd like to find an answer to this
> question before I purchase my live rock and sand.

it wont hurt anything, though it isnt exactly benifitial, if there are fish in it now
clean it alot before adding the sand

consider taking a small corner and piling a little of the cc up, not all of it, maybee
just a fist size area and back filling the remainder of the tank with sand, that will
allow smaller critters that cant live in sand a place to hide, and an area for your
students to see things.

>By the way, I 'm thinking
> of ordering my live rock and sand from e Tropics.com
> http://www.etropicals.com/default.cfm?siteid=40 Any opinions about this
> company? Thanks folks. Appreciate any help.

never ordered from them, i place a lot of online orders for fish and supplies, and am
almost always happy.

> Oh, just thought of adding some more info. for any of you that might like to
> give some pointers. Here is the equipment I have ready to set up:
>
> 55 G. glass aquarium

glass is a good choice here

> 200 W. submersible heater

buy another even a 20W get a good one, use it as a secondary, being at a school, EXPECT
the janators to unplug things, and sprey for bugs when your not looking, cleaning the
glass with cleaner that removes anything with no work, then trying to rub away the
streaks.

> Test kit from Red Sea (tests pH, alkilinity, nitrates, ammonia, nitrites,
> and I think phosphates (not sure about the last one though, the kit is at
> school right now so I can't be sure).

id suggest stearing away from red sea, there not the most reliable, at this point i
wouldnt suggest new test kits, just simply dont buy red sea kits to replace these.

> I am planning on setting up a reef tank for my seventh graders. But before
> adding corals and then a few fish, I would like to cycle my tank with
> liverock and sand, and let this run for a month or so before adding anything
> else. Does this sound like a good idea? Any questions or comments would be
> appreciated. Thanks.

speaking from kinda 2nd hand experiece (tank i maintain in mothers classroom) give the
janitors your home phone, put it in there special room wherever they will find it BEFORE
they try and fix something, or if they notice something broken. leave notes about what to
do when they sprey/clean .... so that your fish dont become dead, and alwasy have carbon
in the tanks filters and keep it fresh. yea its more time work and $$$(buy in bulk online
its much cheaper) but raid kills, and some janators are not the most educated bunch

> Brian McCarty
>

--
Richard Reynolds

[PaulB]

I wouldn't buy live sand if I was planing to let the tank cycle for a
month. If you use live rock the bacteria will seed the sand and it will
become live. You might buy a small quantity of real live sand from Garf
or ISPF and seed dead aragonite with that.


This will also work with live rock. You can get tufa or dry base rock
and a smaller quantity of good live rock. The coraline algae and such
will spread over time.

If you get good quality live rock you might have more interesting
animals. I got some from Harbor Aquatics and it was excellent. Not
cheap though.



Brian McCarty wrote:

> Hi, just thought of another question. In my 55 G. tank, I placed 30 lbs. of
> crushed coral substrate. I now would like to add live sand to this. Is
> there any problem with placing 30 lbs.(possible more for a DSB) of live sand
> directly ontop of the crushed coral? I'd like to find an answer to this
> question before I purchase my live rock and sand. By the way, I 'm thinking
> of ordering my live rock and sand from e Tropics.com
> http://www.etropicals.com/default.cfm?siteid=40 Any opinions about this
> company? Thanks folks. Appreciate any help.
>
> Oh, just thought of adding some more info. for any of you that might like to
> give some pointers. Here is the equipment I have ready to set up:
>
> 55 G. glass aquarium
> 200 W. submersible heater
> Aqua C Remora skimmer with Maxijet 1200 powerhead
> Maxijet 400 powerhead (water movement)
> another powerhead (don't have the specs. on this right now)
> Coralife Aqualight CF 260 watts - 2x Actinic and 2x 10,000K lights
> (the above mentioned) 30 lbs of crushed coral
> Test kit from Red Sea (tests pH, alkilinity, nitrates, ammonia, nitrites,
> and I think phosphates (not sure about the last one though, the kit is at
> school right now so I can't be sure).
>
> I am planning on setting up a reef tank for my seventh graders. But before
> adding corals and then a few fish, I would like to cycle my tank with
> liverock and sand, and let this run for a month or so before adding anything
> else. Does this sound like a good idea? Any questions or comments would be
> appreciated. Thanks.
>
>
> Brian McCarty
>
>