gravel replacement

[rdanford]

I currently have in a 1.5 inch gravel base. I bought it at pet city, it's just a real basic large gravel, now since i've learned more I want to have a live sand base of 3 inches. What do I do with the current gravel, and is it possible to put in the live sand without recycling the tank. Thanks for any advice. Royce

 

[surfnturf]

If the tank is cycled (what do you have for livestock, do you have any LR?) then your wet/dry is performing nearly all of the nitrification, get the gravel out of there and replace it with 4-5 inches of fine sand. It would also be a major benefit to add some live rock to the tank to seed the sand bed with worms, etc. Good Luck!

 

[rdanford]

I have 4 damsels no live rock yet

 

[surfnturf]

My advice would be to add the sand bed (at very minimum 4 inches) get some live rock (whatever you can afford) and upgrade your lighting, you need at minimum 3 watts per gallon to really experience what the live rock, etc has to offer. This is cheaper than you think, you can get a decent setup that will cost you about 100 bucks, or you can go the metal halide route (MH) which nearly everyone seems to recommend. This will cost you several hundred dollars, but you'll be able to keep practically anything in the tank, I guess the question is, what are your goals?