Live sand ?'s

[wingnut sr]

I am setting up a 125 FOWLR. Currently have a 55 w/ CC. I have been fighting nitates with the CC, and want to use LS in the new set up. Any recomendations as to depth of bed and what is the difference in all the packaged sands I see out there?

 

[bang guy]

I have always had success with 3" or so of dry aragonite sand cured in buckets with 20 - 40 pounds of premium live sand (from here) added on top after the tank has cycled.

 

[wingnut sr]

Is 3'' bed a liitle deep? I was thinking more of 2''. Would one that deep be of any extra benefit?
What about the commercialy packaged "Live Sand"? Is this any good???

 

[engineer]

Deep sand beds vs shallow/ static beds. As with all things, there are pros and cons with deep sand beds, and shallow static beds. By far though IMO sand is definitely the way to go over CC.

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by Wingnut Sr
Is 3'' bed a liitle deep? I was thinking more of 2''. Would one that deep be of any extra benefit?
What about the commercialy packaged "Live Sand"? Is this any good???
A 3" will consume many times more Nitrate vs a 2".
The packaged "live sand" is just as good as cured dry sand at only 5 times the cost. It's basically just wet sand with some bacteria, it is in no way real live sand.

 

[daveverdo]

You can use basic fine grain sand, an aragonite based sand would be best. Because you have an existing tank you can just "seed" the sand with something from your existing tank. Some people like the look of some larger grain particles mixed with the fine sand, some don't. Just don't add too much of the CC or it defeats the purpose of the "fine" deep sand bed.
Dave