Setting Up Sand Bed

[Ken]

Hello Again,

I have a few questions on setting up a deep sand bed. I have read about the
sand cloud storm and was wondering if this can cause wear on the pump
impeller? Shoud I use something besides my new Iwaki untill the sand
settles? Since there isn't southdown here in Washington state what would be
be best formula for the sand bed? Iv'e read a number of different articles
and just wanted personal experiences from the group. Is it reccomended to
put a micron filter on the return line to trap sand in the water column
before it hits the pump? Oh yea, one more question, how much kicks up on a
new sand bed by just placing rocks on it? Will I get a nasty cloud and cover
the new live rock?

Hey thanks in advance

Ken

Kensn

[Sean Conlon]

Hmmm....well, when I set my 6" DSB up it was cloudy for about 1.5 - 2 weeks.
I was told not to remove these particles, just let them settle over time.
So, I just put a few powerheads in and let them run until everything
settled....then I went ahead and hooked up the main pump. Stirred up a
little once I did that, but it settled back down in a day or so....

Good luck...

Sean

[Harald]

"Ken" > wrote in message
news:xtVnb.43027$275.95005@attbi_s53...
> Hello Again,
>
> I have a few questions on setting up a deep sand bed. I have read about
the
> sand cloud storm and was wondering if this can cause wear on the pump
> impeller? Shoud I use something besides my new Iwaki untill the sand
> settles? Since there isn't southdown here in Washington state what would
be
> be best formula for the sand bed? Iv'e read a number of different articles
> and just wanted personal experiences from the group. Is it reccomended to
> put a micron filter on the return line to trap sand in the water column
> before it hits the pump? Oh yea, one more question, how much kicks up on a
> new sand bed by just placing rocks on it? Will I get a nasty cloud and
cover
> the new live rock?
>
> Hey thanks in advance
>
> Ken

Don't bother with a pump at all until the sand settles out, or if you want
the pump running, add some filter floss to the pump intake to catch the fine
sand. It shouldn't hurt your pump though, but zero water movement will allow
the sand to settle out faster.

As far as sand type, I'm using standard play sand(70%), white silica
sand(15%), and aragonite(15%) in my main tank. My nano is 100% white silica.
I wish we could get Southdown on the West Coast, or here in Canada, but we
can't. However, Home Depot does have a guarantee on their site saying that
they will bring in product that is sold at any other store if a customer
asks for it. Here's a link:

http://www.homedepot.com/HDUS/EN_US/corporate/about/our_products.shtml

Close to the bottom you will find this:
Can you special order products for me that are not in stock?
Yes, in addition to the 35,000 products stocked by each Home Depot store, we
offer approximately 250,000 more products through our special order
services. Contact your local Home Depot store for more information.

Not much sand will come up when placing rock, and it should settle out
fairly quickly.

hth

--
Harald
130 g Skimmerless SW Tank
290 lbs/6" DSB
70 lbs LR
3 B/G Chromis, 1 Tomato Clown, 1 Lawnmower Blenny, 1 Flame Angel, 1 Foxface.

20 gal Skimmerless SW Nano
80 lbs/6" DSB
31 lbs LR,
1 - 3-Striped damsel, 1 Blue Devil, 1 sm. Tang