Caribsea Aragonite Aragamax Sugar-Sized Sand - OK????

[yourpalcm]

Setting up my first saltwater tank (75g)...
I got 90 lbs Caribsea Aragonite Aragamax Sugar-Sized Sand (Bag labelled Oolite #00930 whatever that means). There was another size at the LFS that was a bit more corse, but I went with the smaller grains. I figured that would be best for the Jawfish and the Scooter Blenny.
I plan on topping that with a 20 lb bag of Live Sand (CaribSea Arag-Alive Live Aragonite Reef Sand, West Caribbean Reef, Product #00794).
Does anyone see a problem with that? Just making sure before I put it in because once it's in, it isn't coming out!
(Just judging by the size of the bags I feel like I'm going to be a little short of 4" in the tank, so I may add little more.)

 

[shawnlx86]

Originally Posted by YourPalCM
Setting up my first saltwater tank (75g)...
I got 90 lbs Caribsea Aragonite Aragamax Sugar-Sized Sand (Bag labelled Oolite #00930 whatever that means). There was another size at the LFS that was a bit more corse, but I went with the smaller grains. I figured that would be best for the Jawfish and the Scooter Blenny.
I plan on topping that with a 20 lb bag of Live Sand (CaribSea Arag-Alive Live Aragonite Reef Sand, West Caribbean Reef, Product #00794).
Does anyone see a problem with that? Just making sure before I put it in because once it's in, it isn't coming out!
(Just judging by the size of the bags I feel like I'm going to be a little short of 4" in the tank, so I may add little more.)
If the dimensions of your tank are 48" x 18" and you want a 4" sandbed you'll need a total of 180lbs. as for sand, I thought for a deep sandbed and for jawfish you wanted a coarser sand? I could be wrong.

 

[anonome]

They will be fine with this sand as long as the tank is mature. Over time the sand will stiffen with age. This could take as long as a year. Tanks go through tremendous amount of changes in one year!! If I were you, I would put 3 inches of non live sand in, can be mixed with coarser sand if you would like, then 1 inch of live sand to season the existing sand bed. You do not want to cover the live sand bed with more than 1/4" of non live at any given time, it will suffocate it and the bed is worthless. This is probably the most important part in planning a saltwater tank. You must have patience. You can probably add a jawfish in 6 months.

 

[hot883]

IMO, the sugar sand packs real tight and is VERY cloudy if moved. Not what you want for a sand sifter thats for sure. I would go with the slightly more course sand.

 

[acrylic51]

Originally Posted by Anonome
They will be fine with this sand as long as the tank is mature. Over time the sand will stiffen with age. This could take as long as a year. Tanks go through tremendous amount of changes in one year!! If I were you, I would put 3 inches of non live sand in, can be mixed with coarser sand if you would like, then 1 inch of live sand to season the existing sand bed. You do not want to cover the live sand bed with more than 1/4" of non live at any given time, it will suffocate it and the bed is worthless. This is probably the most important part in planning a saltwater tank. You must have patience. You can probably add a jawfish in 6 months.
You don't want the sand to stiffen at all!!!!!

 

[alyssia]

Originally Posted by hot883
IMO, the sugar sand packs real tight and is VERY cloudy if moved. Not what you want for a sand sifter thats for sure. I would go with the slightly more course sand.

Agreed

 

[acrylic51]

If your sugar grained sand bed packs which it will if poor maintenance to the sand bed.......there's things that should be done to sand beds that people don't do and should......

 

[cgrant]

This is interesting!

I was always under the impression that you were not supposed to really mess with the sand bed, that if you did it could do more damage than good cause of the LS, Basically all you needed was a clean up crew?
But looks like maybe not?
So what should you do to the sand bed?

 

[acrylic51]

IMO and others misconception......sand beds do need maintenance as well....You won't harm a sand bed by grabbing a handfull or moving a bit at water change time......The key is you don't turn the whole bed at once.....turning a bit at a time your sand bed is still doing it's job.

 

[woolfe]

Originally Posted by SHAWNLX86
If the dimensions of your tank are 48" x 18" and you want a 4" sandbed you'll need a total of 180lbs. as for sand, I thought for a deep sandbed and for jawfish you wanted a coarser sand? I could be wrong.

is it ok to dump sand in the tank with fish in there?

 

[cgrant]

i wound not just dump the sand like that (you will have a sand storm) i would take the fish out, most of the water and then put the sand in, then i would put everything back.
I used a large tupperware container when i filled my 210 and worked out well, basically put the hose from the pump into the container and it wont blow the sand around!

 

[gen1dustin]

That is the same type of sand as I just used.
Sand shouldn't be messed with a ton, but it does need to be aerated. A lot of clean up crew animals help with this. Like hermits, some snails, & conchs, also stars. You could do it yourself by possibly getting a thin wooden dowel or something of the such & running it through the bed.
I think that with jawfish need mainly a deep fine sand bed, but they like to have some coarser particles mixed in. So I believe optimum would be to mix a small amount of coarse sand or maybe even a little bit of crushed coral in with a fine sand.

 

[acrylic51]

The maintenance thing is a key as well....I'm not saying go in and steam shovel your entire sand bed at once....you definitely would upset your balance....I'm saying periodically you have to help things along and a handfull here and there isn't going to kill anything.....We are trying to replicate mother nature.....she has storms and such that we can't replicate in our home systems.....What do we think the storms and such do to the oceans???? :thinking: