[mortman]

HI All,

I am new here and am setting up my reef again.
I have a 90 gallon tank with a wetdry and a berlin
(red seas) skimmer. 1 metal halide 175 watt and 2
30 watt actinics.

I took an 8 foot piece of 3/4 inch pvc pipe and sliced
it in half. Then I cut 22 inch lenghts of it an laid them
in the bottom of my tank. I then wrapped my egg
crate plenum with12 feet of screening and put that
on top of the pvc pipes.

Here's my question. I poured in 100 lbs. of silica based
playsand into my tank. BIG mistake. After talking with a
friend I realized my mistake and syphoned out most of the
stuff. I replaced it with aragonite based playsand. (100 lbs.)
Is the silica sand gunna cause me problems?
And how much Livesand do I need?

Thanks
Mortman

[organicreefer]

silica sand will not cause a problem imo.as for how much live sand,as much as you can afford,preferably from as many sources as you can get it from.

ok,here is youre problem though,i think,youre setting up a plenum right?someone correct me if im wrong,but dont you want a coarser gravel for a plenum system?

personally,id go with 4" or so of aragonite fine grain sand,lose the plenum,and seed as well as possible.

[PerryinCA]

I agree in both cases. The silica sand shouldn't cause any problems, but I think it was a good choice to switch to the aragonite due to its ability to act as part of the buffering system of the tank.

Now, as for the Live sand, you really shouldn't need a large amount. If possible, try to collect a cup or two from a few different sources with healthy tanks. This will add to the biodiversity of the micro-fauna. This fact shouldn't be overlooked as the microscopic critters/bugs/bacteria are what will make or break a tank.

I also agree that the tank would be less trouble if you were to get rid of the plenum. Do a search here on reefland using the letters 'DSB' which is an acronym for Deep Sand Bed. There is tons of info to be found, and it will help with any questions you might have. If there are still unanswered ones, then feel free to ask.

-Perry

[mortman]

Thanks for your replies,

I had to cut way back on the amount of live sand that
I had on order from flyinsfishexpress. I ordered more
rock instead. It's a little late for me to remove the plenum
though.

I have 135 lbs. of live rock coming into my local airport
tommorow night. I saved more than half on the shipping
cost by picking it up myself by the way.

I wanted to thank "Bojinx" for turning me onto this site.
This is great!

Thanks again
Mortman

[Reefland]

Welcome aboard!

I guess I'm a little late but I wanted to second and third the previous advise.

Let us know how your rock shipment looks!

Good luck,
Scott Z.

P.S. Bojinx, where are ya'?!

[Pszemol]

Originally posted by mortman
I had on order from flyinsfishexpress.[...]I wanted to thank "Bojinx" for turning me onto this site. This is great!

Are you talking about http://www.flyingfishexpress.com/ website? If so, let us know how are you satisfy with what you get... It is much to early to give positive note if you haven't receive what you ordered yet...

[mortman]

Hello again,

Well I did it. I removed the plenum from my tanks
bottom. I also added another 50 lbs of southdown.

My live rock shipment was delayed for 24 hours.
So I just went for it. Geeeez what a dust storm I
have created. I am cleaning all of my mechanical
filters hourly, trying to get ride of the stuff.

My big concern right now is about putting my
rock in with all of this dust floating around. Maybe
I will put the rock into plastic bags first. Just for
a day or two.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mortman

[organicreefer]

welcome to the borg(or is that board???lol) collective........

the dust is no big deal put the rocks in right away to minimize die off

[PerryinCA]

Originally posted by organicreefer
welcome to the borg(or is that board???lol) collective........

the dust is no big deal put the rocks in right away to minimize die off

agreed.

-Perry