47.5" Long X 19" Wide Tank, How Much Sand!?

[heavenly_d3vi1]

as title says.. if anyone has a similar size tank, how much sand did you need for a decent layer? I've been told 10kg.. but the bucket looks tiny!!

 

[matt_storey]

i'd say double that, 15-20kg depending how thick u want the bed

 

[ALW]

as title says.. if anyone has a similar size tank, how much sand did you need for a decent layer? I've been told 10kg.. but the bucket looks tiny!!

How deep do you want the sand bed to be?

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

lol, good question! I'm not sure.. I suppose the deepness depends on what I have in my tank or is it just personal preference?

 

[ALW]

Well some wrasse sleep in the sand so require a deepish bed, same with some Gobies they also stir though the sand for critters. Cerith and Sand-sifting starfish require beds of at least 6cm deep. Plus more sand more stable pH.

 

[Uriel]

I was told 20kg for my tank which was about your size. Sand bed depth is a bit of a matter for contention.

Deep Sand Beds allow anaerobic bacteria to form which can process nitrate into nitrogen gas that bubbles off the problem with this is a lot of detritus tends to build up in the sand bed and this means that if the sand bed is disturbed it can cause major problems. Also DSB have been linked to old tank syndrome where you get problems 2-4 years down the line once the tank is established.

Shallow sand beds don't offer a home for anaerobic bacteria but also there are a lot less problems if they get disturbed.

Personally i'll be going shallow sand as I'm having a skimmer and cheato running along with plenty of live rock, so hopefully I won't run into nitrate problems.

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

oh my, well my 'initial yet to be short listed' stocking has quite a few wrasse on it, mainly fairy and flasher and I was hoping to attempt a sand sifting star fih in the furture! I suppose I could go for 2-3 inches and add more later if necesary. I'm gunna be rinning a skimmer, tho I dont know what cheato is!

 

[Uriel]

I'm about the same level of knowledge as you so someone might correct me. Cheato is an algea that you can add to a sump refugium. It uses up nitrate and traces of phosphate to grow. This reduces them in your system. Although apparently you need a lot of algea to make a notable difference.

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

ah right, something else for me to look into then! The list gets longetr by then day!

 

[Morri]

If you are sumping I would go with Miracle Mud in the sump with Chaeto on top a great way of controlling phos and nitrates in the tank

Sand wise my tank is 39" x 30" and I used 20Kg in it I would guess 20Kgs is a good starting point

 

[ALW]

A link for a bit of info on chaeto

www.reefchaeto.com/

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

cheers for that, i'll have a looksy

 

[woody88]

Can you add sand to existing sand as mine is really shallow in some places and would like to top it off. Can you mix different sand as I'm not entirely sure what's currently in there?

 

[ALW]

Can you add sand to existing sand as mine is really shallow in some places and would like to top it off. Can you mix different sand as I'm not entirely sure what's currently in there?

Yes

 

[HappyGeorge]

Have posted on your journal but will post here too.

That was me sorry wasn't trying to mislead you, but I have only used 10kg in mine, which I think is enough and both our tanks have a footprint of 900 square inches. In fact me buying 20kg was the subject of quite a bit of humour in my LFS. The suggestion to me was the thinnest covering I could get away with, but opinion would seem to differ greatly. All I can tell you is that there is plenty enough sand in my tank for the Chalk Goby to sift and to comfortably cover all the egg crate.