lf the best way to make a deep sand bed

[cobyb]

so i want to use a deep sand bed in my fuge. what is the best way to go about it.
what kind of sand, how deep, how should i seed it, do you put snails in thier?
thanks everyone, coby

 

[Krish]

How big of a fuge do you have cody and on what size tank? The reason I ask is because sometimes it isn't worth the effort putting a DSB in a fuge if it is really small supporting a big bioload. It may not offer much benefit. Mike (mojoreef) would be the best person to respond on this as he has quite some knowledge on DSB, but if I can run across any of his threads/posts on it, I will send you the links to read up on.

With that said, if you are going with a dsb, I wouldn't use any crushed corals as they allow for air pockets to be formed between the grain and therefore create aerobic environments which you don't want. You are looking for anaerobic zones void of oxygen where the necessary de-nitrfying bacteria can grow and peform their function of denitrification so with that said, you will want a finer grained sand. Depth is up to you but from what I understand, anything about 3 inches and deeper should be a safe bet. People use to say 5 or more inches, but recently, Mojo brought it to our attention that anaerobic zones can be formed even in as little as 2 inches deep.

 

[cobyb]

i have a 120g and a 30g tank with a 55g sump (tank conversion). the fuge area in the sump is 14"x14" and 12" tall.

 

[Chichas01]

I would say at least 4" of fine grain sand if you are going to do it and you probably need lots of flow. Calfo recommended high flow for DSB's in an article I once read.
I have about the same as your space and use 4" with 2 K1's set up in a gyre fashion to keep the detritus in suspension as much as possible. works with chaeto too as chaeto likes flow as well.

 

[cobyb]

where is a good place to pick up the fine grain sand

 

[Krish]

You can probably get it from your LFS, but you might pay quite a bit for it as it will probably come as "livesand" like Caribsea which you really don't need because it will become "live" in time anyways, but if you don't mind paying the price then that is an option. Apart from that, if you have some in your tank now that you could spare, maybe siphon off from the top layer (like only an inch deep) across the tank and that should provide you with pretty much enough sand to fill a 14x14 inch space coming from a 180 gal tank. In addition to that, you can maybe get a bit of sand from a fellow hobbyist in the same way if you are comfortable with getting sand from their tank.

 

[Chichas01]

I actually go mine at Petco. They had it dry and price was pretty good. Natures Ocean brand Aragonite Sand #0 was what I found.

 

[mojoreef]

I would concider going as deep as possible. If it is a set and forget then the deeper and thus the more of a sink it becomes will giveyou the longest life time on it. Also you must insure that the top lay gets turn constantly (keeping it airated) you can use snails, stars and worms for this task. I dont know about the high flow, that would seem counter intuitive?? you want the detritus to settle on that sand so it can process what it can and then sink the balance.

Mojo

 

[Chichas01]

I found that article by Calfo that I used when considering my DSB in the fuge: DSB article - CALFO

Hope that helps.

 

[the6goat6man6]

I agree with Mojo, I have a 40gal fuge, 8in of fine sand. the bottom layer(about 3in) is "sugar fine" and the top 5in is a little more course. I agree with low flow, the purpose is natural filtration. you are trying to collect the stuff from your display and get it to your "filtration", which would be your fuge. I think.