starting over!

[SALT ONE]

i have had my tank for about a year now. and theres one big part of the tank that i don't like, the substrate. right now its puka shell and i would like to change it. i have heard about a living sand, i need some info on it. would this help get rid of the fish waste and stuff?

[fishguy_8]

live sand is always a good way to go. i have a live sand bed as do many of the great folks here at reefland. live sand is not only aestheticly better in my opinion but it also does take care of detritus and excess fish food in the tank. live sand is also very enjoyable to watch because i am still finding stuff i didnt know i had each day. live sand is mainly just sand with different types of worms, copapods and mini stars....i love the mini-stars they are great and no they arent dangerous they stay quite small they dont get huge or turn predatory like the GBS. the only problem with switching substrates is that you already have fish. when i changed my substrate it was disasterous.....my tomato clowns got some silt in their gills and they died from it. now if you can keep the cloud down in your tank that'd be great but if i were you i'd try and isolate your fish before you change substrates....yea you may give them a little stress but i'd much rather stress a fish out than send him into a grave.....jmo......another thing you'll want to consider is how much of a spike you'll have. i dont have much experience in this area i went with live sand on my second attempt at sw. and i was very successful. scott, reefland, is selling live sand here on the reefland shopping board check it out i hear its excellent and its very reasonably priced. good luck
Jon

[orion25]

My Kole Tang also succombed to the silt from my conversion.

Reefland.com (aka Scott) has some excellent live sand at reasonable prices ($40 for 10 lbs delivered). He also has Southdown Dry sand for a good price ($66 for 150 lbs delivered).

IMO you cannot make a mistake when going to a DSB.

Ryan

[Bughead]

Orion- did your kole tang die while your were adding the sand? All my fish did just fine through the process, even though the tank looked like skim milk until the silt settled. Anyway, I added a little bit of sand to an area yesterday that the convict blennies had excavated. I used the suggestion of one of you guys (brown trout, I think) and shot the sand down a 3" 2 1/2 foot long PVC pipe. There was no more cloudiness than there is when a fish swishes its fins and stirrs up silt.

I sure wish I'd known this technique last January when I increased the sand bed from 2" to 5".

[orion25]

The Kole died about a week later. I am not positive it was the silt but I am pretty sure. After I fed him he would "release his waste" and it looked like the silt. (not sure of the proper terminology)

Ryan

[SALT ONE]

how thick does the sand need to be????? 3 or 4 inches?

[orion25]

Mine is 5-6 in. The more the merrier 6 is the upper limit I have ever heard of anyone using.

Ryan

[SPasse]

Hi All,

Actually when it comes to sand bed depth, there may not be an upper limit.

A number of enthusiasts have notice an increase in nitrate processing capability when adding an additional 2” to an existing 4” deep fine DSB.

Therefore, In general I advocate a 6” deep DSB.

The comments about fauna diversity above are well taken. I typically use detrivore and lives sand starter kits from IndoPacific Sea Farms, Island Aquatics, and several local donors.

Then you feed the bed with a product such as “Golden Pearls” and build you sand bed up into a potent detritus processor.

Regards,

Scott Passe