live sand...

[socer03dud]

Right now I have crushed coral for the base of my aquirum. It's almost a year old (in April it will be) Is it too late to put 20 lbs of live sand on the bottom of my tank? I'd put it on one side over some cushed coral to make little hills, also some of the fish might like to swim on it and lay on it.

 

[mudplayerx]

Theres no need to buy "live" sand if your tank is already 1 year old because you already have nitrifying bateria growing on everything inside your tank.
If you want to get sand, just buy "aragonite" without the water in the bag. It is way cheaper. I would totally remove the crushed coral and replace it with aragonite sand.
The crushed coral is bad for your water quality as it has many little pockets for waste to decay in.

 

[socer03dud]

where can I find this "aragonite" sand because my lfs doesn't sell it and neither does swfs and how much does it cost a lbs? I'll need a ton of lbs than

 

[mudplayerx]

Just search for aragonite sand on the internet. I can't post a link here because the moderators won't allow it.
The best kind is "fiji pink".... its not pink at all, so dont worry. I pay $24 per bag at my lfs (not sure how many pounds per bag).

 

[socer03dud]

thanks I guess now I have to order it and change from the cushed coral I have now... what should I do with the crushed coral?

 

[socer03dud]

also how many lbs would I need?

 

[chunkysoup]

depends on how deep you want the sand bed. mine is about 5 inches and i needed about 400 pounds for my 220. check out garf.org and they have a "sand bed calculator" or something in the left hand menu. It well tell you how many pounds you need for your desired depth.

 

[mudplayerx]

Not sure. I have a 55 gallon tank and it took me 4 bags prices at $24 each. If anyone has any idea how many pounds a $24 bag has in it, I'd appreciate the input.
ps- I also bought a 20 pound bag of live sand. (which you dont need.)

 

[chunkysoup]

i would suggest doing a search on southdown tropical playsand on here. This is usually sold at home depot and is much cheaper than LS. It's only like a couple dollars for a 50lb bag i think. This will eventually turn into LS. "seeding it" with some LR will speed the process up as well.

 

[socer03dud]

well i guess i have something to save up for... Would it be ok if i just ordered 2 bags of the sand then ordered 2 more until i got the right amount of lbs of sand, then do the change later?

 

[socer03dud]

i hope my local home depot has that sand, I'll call and ask them tommorrow, or i'll just go in and see... Would you think you a hd in colorado would have some in?

 

[snipe]

It really depends some places have it and some dont. If you pressure them they will order it for you. On mine I have 40lbs base and 20lbs live and around a cup or two from a friend. It gave me around a 3 to 4 inch sand bed depending on where you look in the tank. That is with a mix of suger sand and a little more bigger size of live sand.

 

[cvk531]

hmmm..... does a swt require live sand?

 

[snipe]

live sand is like live rock it is a HUGE biological filtration. And things can burrow in it that they cant in CC and it wont harbor nitrates like CC.