Adding Live Sand to an Established Tank

[Peter Pan]

When I first set up my tank 75 gal FOWRL (75 lbs of LR) several Years ago,
I added 3 inches of sand as well as Live sand. Now I am wondering If I
should add more sand as well as more Live sand for a deeper Sand bed. Your
thoughts are appreciated.

[Roy]

Well the sand would not have to be live as it will readily seed form
whats there since the tank is pretty mature...You may experieince a
mini cycle with live or non live sand, but it should not be a major
problem, if done a bit at a time, as even real live snd is going to
create a cycle of some duration as its bound to have some dead junk in
it. Use a pice of PVC pipe and pour sand down through the pipe to
spread it around so it does not cloud up the water a readily, or
syphon some water out and imerse entire bag or a baggie full of sand
with one corner cut off (sort of like those cones used for decorating
cakes etc with icing
On Thu, 2 Mar 2006 16:48:52 -0500, "Peter Pan" >
wrote:
>><>When I first set up my tank 75 gal FOWRL (75 lbs of LR) several Years ago,
>><>I added 3 inches of sand as well as Live sand. Now I am wondering If I
>><>should add more sand as well as more Live sand for a deeper Sand bed. Your
>><>thoughts are appreciated.
>><>

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The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

[Tidepool Geek]

Hi Peter,

Conventional wisdom about "Deep" Sand Beds implies that the depth
should be 4 to 5 inches but there's more to it than that. Some of the
various flora and fauna in a DSB are quite sensitive to how deep they
are buried and may die off if you add too much depth at one time.
Further, there is a tendency for the diversity of life in a DSB to
diminish over time since some things just don't do as well as others
in a given aquarium.

Consider adding a combination of sand and live sand in a quantity to
increase the depth by 1/8 to 1/4 inch and then repeating the addition
every six months or so (preferably using live sand from a different
source each time). By doing it that way you shouldn't inadvertently
smother anything and you'll insure that the biological diversity in
the bed is maximized.

For more information, take a look at this site:
http://www.ronshimek.com/Online%20Articles%201.htm
Dr. Ron Shimek is probably the best authority available on DSB design
and maintenance and you'll find several articles on the subject on
this site - The DSB articles are grouped at the bottom of the page.

Sedimentally yours,

Alex