Deep sand bed?

[bigfishy]

I dont have live sand in my tank I am using substrate or whatever you call sand that nots alive. lol How deep do you guys normally make your sand bed? Mine is 3 to 4 inches. Also I have sand and water in my tank, that is it, will a couple fish still do the trick for the cycle? Thanks to everyone for helping me, I dont know what I would do without this message board. Books are great but its always nicer to chat with the experts.
Also what temp do you guys keep your tank, mine is at 74 right now.

 

[shmeeb]

i've heard that the best way to cycle the tank is to throw dead supermarket shrimp into the tank. as it decomposes it will give off ammonia, which should start your cycle. 4 inches sounds right for your DSB. what are you using for biological filtration, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[bigfishy]

I have an emporer 400 for my filter

 

[broncofish]

I did it in my first tank a couple of years ago with a cooked shrimp, and it did not speed up the process at all, next tank I used uncook shrimp...two weeks at it was cycled.

 

[jhead]

I keep my tanks at 78-80 and my DSB is 3.5". My understanding is the finer the sand grain the shallower the bed can be. The object is get a layer under the sand that has no oxygen so that NON Aerobic Bacteria can form. The anerobic bacteria is what converts nitrates into nitrogen gas and the smaller grain size provides more surface area for the bacteria to grow.

 

[solandri]

I'm setting up a 180 in about a month. Will a sand bed less than 4 inches help the biological filtration or not? Maybe about 2 inches to start. Is that ok or will I need more to help cycle?
-Mike
westonm@sas.upenn.edu

 

[sebae0]

i set up a 180 and if you want to do it right i would go atleast 4" for your dsb. correct me if im wrong but the smaller grain size doesn't have more surface area but it does compact tighter to cause more of a anaerobic zone, a larger grain size would have more surface area but not compact a good?

 

[barracuda]

TIP: if you wanna meke your sand bed live, buy some live sand and seed your sand bed with it. It will become live within several months. Just don't add Mandarinfish. He will eat all the crustaceans and will not allow them to reproduce.

 

[bigfishy]

Thanks a lot for all the info guys. Looks like I will be going to get an uncooked shrimp tomorrow. Thanks again for the help

 

[jhead]

Think about it for a minute. If you had a sand grain and cut it down the middle. Now you have two additional surfaces, thus more surface area, and a smaller grain size in the approximately the same amount of space.

 

[fshhub]

exactly, well put
if you have one 4 x 4, that would be asurface of 16(4+4+4+4)
two 4 x2 woud be two 12s(two each at 2+4+2+4) or 24
four 2 x 2 is four each of 8(2+2+2+2)or 32
did not use inches or anything, since any standard woudl fit

 

[javatech]

here is a good site for info
http://www.simplifiedreefkeeping.com/faq/faq.htm

 

[i_like_fishies]

You want to get "suger sized" grains for your DSB, the smaller the better. There is actually more surface area on smaller grains than the bigger ones. You want to go with at least a 4" DSB!