Sand!

[xNOTLOCx]

well i went out and bougt all the stuff that my lfs told me to to start a cycle well he was a moron after i did research most of the things i bought non returnable were bad, so i swiched lfs and i made what i have work, i have a biowheel mechanical filter the best 1 for my tank size, and indergravel filter and i got 1 powerhead 600 and 1 powerhead 601 for the side with least filtration in my 30 g tank wich i wish i would have gone bigger but again i rushed into the hobby, so now that i have 3 damsels in there for about 2 weeks now and 15 pounds of live rock wich im getting more i wondered he gave me a really bad bedding 2 and its like white small granite peices nice but not what i want so i was wondering if i can take half of it a\out and put live sand on top without dusturbing my powerheads or the filtration like clogging ect... it would be too much work to pull it out and return everything since they dnt take it so i have to make it work... any suggestions ab9out live sand or what i could do to not disturb the fish and make my tank a little better?

and eventually i wanted an elctric scallop does anyone have experiewnce with these or like them there way cool

 

[hutsler]

well i went out and bougt all the stuff that my lfs told me to to start a cycle well he was a moron after i did research most of the things i bought non returnable were bad, so i swiched lfs and i made what i have work, i have a biowheel mechanical filter the best 1 for my tank size, and indergravel filter and i got 1 powerhead 600 and 1 powerhead 601 for the side with least filtration in my 30 g tank wich i wish i would have gone bigger but again i rushed into the hobby, so now that i have 3 damsels in there for about 2 weeks now and 15 pounds of live rock wich im getting more i wondered he gave me a really bad bedding 2 and its like white small granite peices nice but not what i want so i was wondering if i can take half of it a\out and put live sand on top without dusturbing my powerheads or the filtration like clogging ect... it would be too much work to pull it out and return everything since they dnt take it so i have to make it work... any suggestions ab9out live sand or what i could do to not disturb the fish and make my tank a little better?

and eventually i wanted an elctric scallop does anyone have experiewnce with these or like them there way cool

you may want to think about getting that undergravel filter out, I know itmay be a lot of work but you will either lose your livestock because of all the nitrates it will collect, or if you clean it meticulously enough that it does not trap nitrates you doing just as much work. just a suggestion
also do you have a specific reason for the live sand because your money is better spent on more live rock, you only have about half the amount you need for that size tank. also those damsels are onry little guys you might want to take them back to your lfs before you get more live rock because its awfuly hard to catch them. hope this helps .

 

[xNOTLOCx]

i just want sand because some of the blennys and other inverts require sand, and it looks great, and im only keeping 1 damsel the 3-striep cuz he reclaims his territory every time i rearrange the rock, but ya i need mroe rock, im getting another 2 pounds im taking it slow so i can afford it. thnx

 

[Aquascaper]

Sand and UGF's are not a good mix

The reason the LFS has sold you the gravel is so that it doesn't clog up the UGF, if you want to change to sand then you'll have to strip the tank and get the UGf out first IMO. This will be one major upset to the tank compared with the constant disruption when cleaning the UGF on a bi-weekly/monthly basis so it's worth doing.

 

[xNOTLOCx]

alright well then thanks for the input so if i take it out, do i just keep both of my powerhead inside the tank and let em keep the water flowong or whats the best soultion and cheapest maybe return those and get something else right now i have a powerhead 600,601 and a bio-wheel that has all the filtrations in it bio, mech,chem and thats what oxygenated my water and idno i think its a 120 or 200

 

[Dragonscales]

There is always the option of reversing the UGF so it blows water upwards instead of sucking it downwards and running a skimmer in the tank also. This is probably the best way to utilise an UGF in a marine tank (other than using the base of one to make a plenum and throwing away the other bits ).

Personally I agree with doing away with it altogether as there are far more effective ways of filtering a tank, but I just thought I would bring it up just for the sake of bringing another option to the table.