My new reef aquarium

[tthemadd1]

Are you thinking sand or no sand down the road? I think you were running a canister? Hob?
I'm not a fan of no sand. Lots of food, micro and macro orgs live there to break down excesses. If you like the darker look black sand would do the same thing and give you more surface area for orgs.
Just a thought but like the rock. Sitting here tonight with the lady just staring into the tank and plans for a deeper shallow tank in the future.

 

[sparty059]

I'm still torn on if I want sand or not. Sand will most definitely make it look much cleaner and will give me more surface space for other coral. I just don't know though. To get a decent sand bed I would need at least (I think I calculated correctly) 60 pounds of sand. That's going to turn into another hefty charge, but ultimately might make it a good decision depending on what I plan to keep. It's something that I am deciding whether or not I want to venture though.
Glad you're digging the rocks though! It took some time to get them situated to the point where any slight tap won't cause a domino effect and they all come crashing down. If I do decide to go with a sand bed I'll just grab a long tube, funnel and start dumping sand in that way. Although I don't think I'd be able to get sand in the areas inside the caves under the rocks.

 

[bang guy]

A 1/2" sandbed will provide all of the benefits associated with sandbeds except Nitrate reduction.

 

[sparty059]

Ok. Then I think you've all convinced me that maybe I'll do a sand bed. I think it'll ultimately make the tank look cleaner and as mentioned earlier it'll give me more area to place other corals. So I suppose I'll get 40 pounds over the weekend and work on getting it placed in the tank! More pictures to come then as I get the sand in there! Thank you all for your suggestions/recommendations!

 

[gemmy]

I have heard great things about the Tropic Eden Reef Flakes. I would try to find that. It may be a little hard to find right now, but should be available in a couple of weeks.

 

[sparty059]

So after much consideration I've decided to buy live sand for the tank. It has far more upside and downside for it as mentioned so I gave in. The sand I purchased was 40 pounds of CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink sand. Since I've already placed the rock in the tank and filled it with water I plan to put the sand in by funnel and tube. Has anyone done this? I'll check the forum for more details on how this should be done but I can't imagine it'll be all that difficult. Pictures to come when the sand is settled in there!

 

[sparty059]

About four hours after placing a twenty pound bag of fiji pink live sand in the tank it seems as some of the sand storm has settled. I have been playing with my powerheads the last hour or so to adjust to prevent sand piling up (which you can see is still an issue on the far left side of the tank. It'll take some time, but the ultimate goal just like anyone else's is to make sure there aren't any dead spots and it's proving to be fairly difficult to do with a hex tank. Even though in my mind it should have been fairly simple to have the pressure bounce off of multiple glasses... eliminating all dead spots. Anyway still a work in progress... there isn't any sand in the back side of the tank and I'm debating if I want to throw the remaining twenty pound bag in there since the first twenty has covered its fair share of ground in this tank. Does it pose any issues if there are some empty spots for sand? -- The back is fairly closed off so I wasn't anticipating putting any coral back there anyway.

 

[tthemadd1]

You should be fine and the sand will sprea out over time.

 

[bang guy]

Looks great to me. There's nothing wrong with the current piling the sand up in some spots.
Do you have any friends with reef tanks? It would be good to seed your sandbed with some live sand.

 

[sparty059]

Unfortunately no. However, the sand I bought was live sand so it should be sufficient. I had also bought live rock too so I'm guessing there will be more than enough seeding/life for the tank right now. I checked on it this morning and the sand was piled up so much in one area that the bottom of the glass was showing. So more readjustments on the power heads are in my near future. Hopefully I can find the sweet spot at some point today so I won't have to make any more adjustments.

 

[tthemadd1]

Raising the powerheads towards the surface will help with the violent currents near the bottom. Remember you are not wanting to have extreme currents points the powerheads across the surface not down. The water blowing across the top has to go somewhere. In turn it was go down to the bottom and keep things from falling into a dead zone.

 

[sparty059]

Yeah. It seems to be a pain getting it to hit all zones though. Chances are things will make it past the current at some point and if I don't have anything hitting near the base of the tank then it'll end up growing cyano/algae in the event it stays planted long enough. I'll take your mention into consideration though and see if I can get these powerheads in place without causing too much movement on the sand.

 

[tthemadd1]

One thing is that a good CUC will do the majority of the work. Something's that will tirn over the sand help a lot. Snails would be the best for this. Maybe a sand sifter. Although all need sufficient food to sustain them.
All in all looks good and your pace/patience is great.

 

[bang guy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparty059 http:///t/395326/my-new-reef-aquarium/20#post_3521046
Unfortunately no. However, the sand I bought was live sand so it should be sufficient.
I suppose it's just my opinion but for me live sand doesn't come from a shelf in a store. They are allowed to call it what they want but my opinion is that the shelved stuff is wet sand with some bacteria.
Yes, I agree that your live rock will have some critters that will migrate to your sandbed but I believe the best sandbed critters come from real live sand. You're fine with what you have so don't get me wrong, it can just be better (optionally).

 

[sparty059]

Gotcha. I understand what you're saying. I completely agree as well that there are better options but with my selection that's the only possible situation (sand from shelf). But yes, I completely understand what you mean that matured live sand with actual critters in it is far better. It'll just have to take longer to get to that state for me.
Another update about the power head placement - I moved them further up and continue to get a ton of sand build up. I will make some further adjustments AGAIN. Later tonight or possibly tomorrow morning I will also betaking a few water tests to see if the cycle is anywhere close to being complete. We're looking at almost a 3 week cycle on all live rock/live sand. I'm guessing another two weeks and I should be in god shape but will give it the time it needs.

 

[sparty059]

Today I measured the readings. Here are the following:
pH - 8.0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 80
So I'll just sit around for a few more weeks and then I'll look at throwing a pair of clowns in there.

 

[sparty059]

***Of course adding the fish will be done AFTER a 30% water change.

 

[bang guy]

One of the processes I firmly believe in is ghost feeding when a tank is empty of macro animals. I would feed the tank exactly the amount of food you would feed if you had your first fish in there. This way the bacteria population will already be at the level required to support two Clownfish and there will be no ammonia spike when the fish are added.

 

[sparty059]

I haven't gotten around to ghost feeding yet just because I haven't had time to run out and grab any food from the store. However, this morning I took a look at the tank and the glass is starting to populate with copepods so I'm thrilled to see it starting to move along in the cycling process. When I get around to running to the store (which will likely be tonight) I'll probably pick up a turbo or two just to have them clean some of the new growing algae on the rocks just to clean it up as well as sift some of the sand. Glad to see this process is going without a hitch though. Patience is easy to have when I have to focus on work since I'm working far too much these days. But I'm not going to complain... my last tank I was too eager and found myself with some large algae issues because I was moving along faster than my tank could handle. It's nice to see how a tank progresses when the process is followed correctly.

 

[tthemadd1]

+1. You are correct. If you can't pick up some food a small amount of fish. Like a pinch a day would suffice. I picked up some white fish, non cooked shrimp scallops and clams from the meat department non frozen. Put it through the food processor and bam fish food. Maybe throw some nori in for the herbivores down the line.