Sand

[lou 123]

how many pounds of sand do you think i will need for a 75 gallon tank for a 4 inch sand bed?

 

[rabbut]

What's the base dimentions? Standord 75g? or a wider one? Tall? You see, not every 75g has the same dimentions and that makes "guestimating" the ammount of sand you require hard without knowing how wide and long it is... My 4X2 foot based tank swallowed 45KG of wsand for a 2.5" covering..... (FW tank, but the ammount you need will be similar ) To get to 4" deep, you'd need about another 2 15KG bags, so 5 15KG bags for that sized tank...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[onebto]

Absolutely rabbut is correct need some dimensions

I have a cheese shaped corner tank dimensions in my signature I brought (cheep as chips) two 15kg bags for mine I found just over a bag gave me plenty to play with and kept the rest just to replace from time to time

 

[SkiFletch]

4" of sand is a LOT, why so much?

 

[lou 123]

I like the way a deep sand bes looks, is there something wrong with a DSB? standard 75 gallon, 48L 18W

 

[rabbut]

If you're going that deep, you will want to do a 2-3" layer (the latter being best IMO) and then lay down some form of divider, and then place your rock and then add the rest of the sand to ensure your rock-stack is secure and that nothing can burrow beneith it

I'd say 5 bags are needed for a 48X18" base at 4" deapth

All the best
Rabbut

 

[lou 123]

why would i put a divider? if i put the rock in first as i plan to do, nothing would be able to burrow underneath it, right?

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, if you put your rock in first nothing should be able to burrow underneath it. Also consider getting some large PVC pipe end caps. You can lay those on the bottom glass and then rest the rocks on those to "prop up" the rocks and not have tons buried under the sand bed. The biggest trouble with that much sand is rock slides and burrowing creatures. If you like the look then I'm not going to stop you, but I'd suggest something more modest about 2" or so of sand. Don't forget, cleaning that much sand is a PITA

To answer your question though, you'd need at least 1 40lb bag of sand for 4" and maybe more depending on how much rocks you use. You can always add mroe sand later. Also, don't buy that "Live" junk in plastic bags with water. Nothing live survives months on warehouse shelves sealed away from Oxygen and either freezing or baking away before it goes and sits stagnant again on your LFS shelves... It's a gimmick, just buy plain aragonite sand

 

[lou 123]

i was gonna use estes reef sand, good or bad brand? ok so maybe ill back it up to 2-3 inch sand bed. thanks.

 

[SkiFletch]

Wait, the black stuff?

 

[rabbut]

The divider is also to prevent burrowing. Past about 3" you create a Deep Sand Bed Filter in the tank. These getting disturbed too much has been seen to be a contributing factor in tank crashes, so limiting the ammount of disturbance is a way to prevent your tank crashing if disturbing the DSBF can lead to a tank crash There is a lot of dibate over if a DSBF can crash a tank though, depending on if it does get stired up regularly or not, but I figure "why take the risk"?

All the best
Rabbut