How much live sand?

I read that 2" of sand is the minimum. Fair to say that I'm well under
that.

Any recommendations?

--Kurt

Says who. !" can be too much in some conditions. Unless yu have a
need for a deep sand bed its best to keep it at or under 1" and not
worry about it causing problems later on. However if there is a real
need for a deeper bed then 2" is really too shallow, but its deep
enough to cause problems.

On Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:14:17 -0500, KurtG
wrote:


I read that 2" of sand is the minimum. Fair to say that I'm well under
that.

Any recommendations?

--Kurt

* Tristan wrote, On 12/5/2006 1:01 PM:

Says who. !" can be too much in some conditions. Unless yu have a
need for a deep sand bed its best to keep it at or under 1" and not
worry about it causing problems later on. However if there is a real
need for a deeper bed then 2" is really too shallow, but its deep
enough to cause problems.

How can you tell if there's a need for a deeper bed? I have an 8- or 10-gal.
hex tank set up with about a 3" bed.

On Tue, 05 Dec 2006 22:26:25 GMT, Cindy wrote:

* Tristan wrote, On 12/5/2006 1:01 PM:

Says who. !" can be too much in some conditions. Unless yu have a
need for a deep sand bed its best to keep it at or under 1" and not
worry about it causing problems later on. However if there is a real
need for a deeper bed then 2" is really too shallow, but its deep
enough to cause problems.

How can you tell if there's a need for a deeper bed? I have an 8- or 10-gal.
hex tank set up with about a 3" bed.
It depends on what critters you have in the tank and if they like to
burrow deep in the sand bed. At one time a deep sand bed was the only
way to go. Now its a different story. Its a root of hydrogen sulphide
buildup if the bed is not stirred up and sifted by the critters. It
does help stabilize a tank to some degree that is however if there is
enough of it, but too much as I stated leads to problems much worse.

There is even well known folks in the marine trade that are making and
using false sand substrate bottoms. A friend had about a 3" bedin a 15
gal tank. May have even been 4" deep, and it always had a bad problem
of red slime algae. He had lots of circulation was choosey on whata
foods and the amounts he fed, yet his red slime persisted. The tank
was up for about 2 years and was trouble free when this red slime
occured. He also started to have green algae problems as well. After
pulling his hair out the final solution was found, which was reducing
the depth of the sand bed so it did not harbor any or at least as
much organics and fuel for algaes etc. He reduced the bed to 1" or so,
and almost over night redslime problems went away and his hair algae
problems started to dissapate as well.

OK I'm very much a newbie from a freshwater background....in a FW tank
deep substrate is OK if the gravel isn't too large and the tank has
plenty of plants where the roots pretty much deal with the nasties and
you vac up the rest....from my reading and advice I've been given too
deep in a reef tank has a few problems without the right clean up
crew.....you cannot gravel vac your substrate (a fav with us fw guys) -
if you do that you are taking out the good critters along with the
nasties....From my understanding (and limited experience) dead sand
rapidly becomes live sand if you have live rock....so why spend the
money....

Very much what I have read...and observation on the amount of activity
in my "dead sand" that is now brimming with life after 13 weeks...

Gill

That is true. I do not use store bought live sand. I rely on good live
rock to seed my sand bed. I collect sand off the beach and in short
order its teaming with life form the live rock, or I often take a
scoop or two from an already established tank and add it. Does the
same thing. There is some critters that will not be in sand seeded by
live rock, but then again they will not be in what is often bought as
live sand in a bag either. The wet packed sand is nothing more
thanhype in most cases due to packaging and exposure and temps it is
stored and kept at. At most it is sand with beneficial bacteria which
is not really my idea of live sand, but a lot of foks think its live
sand in a wet pack bag.

On Tue, 05 Dec 2006 23:59:05 +0000, Gill Passman
wrote:



OK I'm very much a newbie from a freshwater background....in a FW tank
deep substrate is OK if the gravel isn't too large and the tank has
plenty of plants where the roots pretty much deal with the nasties and
you vac up the rest....from my reading and advice I've been given too
deep in a reef tank has a few problems without the right clean up
crew.....you cannot gravel vac your substrate (a fav with us fw guys) -
if you do that you are taking out the good critters along with the
nasties....From my understanding (and limited experience) dead sand
rapidly becomes live sand if you have live rock....so why spend the
money....

Very much what I have read...and observation on the amount of activity
in my "dead sand" that is now brimming with life after 13 weeks...

Gill

Tristan wrote:
I collect sand off the beach and in short order its teaming with life form the live rock, or I often take a
scoop or two from an already established tank and add it. Does the
same thing.


I guess it also depends where you live and where you take your sand
from....around here it is highly likely that you would
introduce all sorts of nasties (pollutants) with any beach collected
sand....it might look clean and be certified "good for bathing" but then
just watch those ferries and merchant ships pulling out of port....and
just think of the oil etc.....same applies when anyone suggests I
collect rainwater for changes on my freshwater tanks....hmmmm....on the
Heathrow flight path....one of the busiest in the world....anyone care
to convince me that my rainwater doesn't contain aviation fuel....

gill

Not true.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Tristan wrote on 12/5/2006 2:01 PM:

Says who. !" can be too much in some conditions. Unless yu have a
need for a deep sand bed its best to keep it at or under 1" and not
worry about it causing problems later on. However if there is a real
need for a deeper bed then 2" is really too shallow, but its deep
enough to cause problems.

On Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:14:17 -0500, KurtG
wrote:

I read that 2" of sand is the minimum. Fair to say that I'm well under
that.

Any recommendations?

--Kurt

Nope, having a deep sand bed is not a problem.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Tristan wrote on 12/5/2006 5:58 PM:

It depends on what critters you have in the tank and if they like to
burrow deep in the sand bed. At one time a deep sand bed was the only
way to go. Now its a different story. Its a root of hydrogen sulphide
buildup if the bed is not stirred up and sifted by the critters. It
does help stabilize a tank to some degree that is however if there is
enough of it, but too much as I stated leads to problems much worse.

There is even well known folks in the marine trade that are making and
using false sand substrate bottoms. A friend had about a 3" bedin a 15
gal tank. May have even been 4" deep, and it always had a bad problem
of red slime algae. He had lots of circulation was choosey on whata
foods and the amounts he fed, yet his red slime persisted. The tank
was up for about 2 years and was trouble free when this red slime
occured. He also started to have green algae problems as well. After
pulling his hair out the final solution was found, which was reducing
the depth of the sand bed so it did not harbor any or at least as
much organics and fuel for algaes etc. He reduced the bed to 1" or so,
and almost over night redslime problems went away and his hair algae
problems started to dissapate as well.

Says who


On Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:35:23 GMT, Wayne Sallee
wrote:

Nope, having a deep sand bed is not a problem.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Tristan wrote on 12/5/2006 5:58 PM:

It depends on what critters you have in the tank and if they like to
burrow deep in the sand bed. At one time a deep sand bed was the only
way to go. Now its a different story. Its a root of hydrogen sulphide
buildup if the bed is not stirred up and sifted by the critters. It
does help stabilize a tank to some degree that is however if there is
enough of it, but too much as I stated leads to problems much worse.

There is even well known folks in the marine trade that are making and
using false sand substrate bottoms. A friend had about a 3" bedin a 15
gal tank. May have even been 4" deep, and it always had a bad problem
of red slime algae. He had lots of circulation was choosey on whata
foods and the amounts he fed, yet his red slime persisted. The tank
was up for about 2 years and was trouble free when this red slime
occured. He also started to have green algae problems as well. After
pulling his hair out the final solution was found, which was reducing
the depth of the sand bed so it did not harbor any or at least as
much organics and fuel for algaes etc. He reduced the bed to 1" or so,
and almost over night redslime problems went away and his hair algae
problems started to dissapate as well.



-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!