I would get all of the crush coral out and go with nothing but
sand....

You may be surprised that once a bit of bacteria is establishe din
the sand it doe snot seem to fly around as much as it sort of adheres
together more, or at least thats what it looks like. I have one pico
tank with a small goby and shrimp and the goby is always stirring the
sand up. Its nothing but regular fine white beach sand i got years
back out of the gulf of mexico on the Florida pan handle, and its
really not been much of a problem, just don't direct a powerhead too
close.

Do you have an anenome for the clown to host with? I do not have them
in all my tanks and the tanks without an anenomen the clown in that
tanks does the same thing as yours does, however the ones with an
anenome rarely ever sand surf.




On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 16:11:26 GMT, wrote:
Ok,

Based on what the previous two posters said, I feel good about going
with a finer grain sugar sand, and 1-1.5" is what I had in mind. The
new tank's footprint is larger than the old, so should I keep the
crushed coral and put the new sand on top up to 1.5" or should I just
scrap the crushed coral?

Also, I have this tomato clown that I hate but feel bad getting rid
of. He digs his tail into the crushed coral, wiggles his whole body,
and flings substrate about 8" in every direction. I can only assume
that the effect will be worse with a finer grain sand. Any
suggestions? Thanks again.

Grant



On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 14:48:51 GMT, (Roy) wrote:

I do not go over 1.5" depth opf sand no matter what type of tank I
have setup. Most have less than 1.5". I have sand burrowiing
critters, and even though they may like a deeper bed, they still
thrive and do fine. Deep sand beds can in some cases lead to problems,
more than any thinner bed will ever have. Its also that much less to
worry abaout cleaning below the sand bed, when it starts growoing
algae etc under the sand bed against the glass. IIRC I use about 1#
sand per gal of tank size which for the most part works out to a bed
of about 1 to 1.5" deep.

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 03:38:32 GMT, wrote:
Hi,

Anyone have an opinion on the next best alternative to a DSB? I just
don't like the appearance of 4" of sand, or 2" for that matter. No
offense meant--I know most of you use this method. But I've had a 30
gallon FOWLR with 3/4" of crushed coral and a canister filter running
for 10 years with zero nitrates, so I don't see the value of a DSB for
me.

Now that I'm upgrading to a larger tank, I would like to replace the
crushed coral with a thin layer of some type of a finer grain sand for
the sake of appearance. Or should I just stick with what has worked
for me? Or maybe, mix the two. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Grant

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