sand question

[skiper gre]

I am setting up a 125 gallon reef-fish tank. The tank measures 60x18x24. I plan on starting off with 200 pounds of live rock. My question is on the sand. I want to use live sand and think I want a deep sand bed 2 to three inches thick. How much live sand is that in pounds? And would 2 or 3 inches of live sand be enough to be considered a deep sand bed? I have a 30 gal sump and room and plumbing set up to add about ten gal refuge systems soon. I don’t want to put any thing in my sump.
:help:
thanks
Greg

 

[benj2112]

At a 2 inch depth you would need 113 lbs. of sand assuming the sand weighs 90 lbs. per cubic foot.
At a 3 inch depth you would need 169 lbs. of sand assuming...
I would say that 2 to 3 inches is more in the shallow sand bed range
4+ is more along the lines of a deep sand bed
At a 4 inch depth you would need 225 lbs. of sand assuming the sand weighs 90 lbs. per cubic foot.
If anybody thinks that the sand weighs more per cubic foot then be sure to chime in. I usually find info that says between 90 and 100 lbs. per cubic foot.

 

[skiper gre]

Thanks for that information! With 200 pounds of like rock in a 125g tank would it be beneficial to have 4 inches of sand over 2 inches of sand? Your opinions are appreciated!

 

[thomas712]

3 inches would be about 154+ pounds
4 inches would be about 200+ pounds
3 inches isn't quite a DSB, 4+ inches would be.
A 10 gallon fuge on a 125 would be like a St Bernard trying to pet a frog. A 55 gallon fuge would work much better.
Thomas

 

[benj2112]

What happened to my reply? I guess I came up with some slightly different answers, but pretty much the same...
At a 2 inch depth you would need 113 lbs. of sand assuming the sand weighs 90 lbs. per cubic foot.
At a 3 inch depth you would need 169 lbs. of sand assuming...
I would say that 2 to 3 inches is more in the shallow sand bed range
4+ is more along the lines of a deep sand bed
At a 4 inch depth you would need 225 lbs. of sand assuming the sand weighs 90 lbs. per cubic foot.
If anybody thinks that the sand weighs more per cubic foot then be sure to chime in. I usually find info that says between 90 and 100 lbs. per cubic foot.

 

[thomas712]

There appear to be two threads about this. I'll see if I can merge them together.
Ahh thats better,

 

[benj2112]

I got confused and thought my reply had dissapeared...just didn't notice that you had placed it in a different section as well. Then they got merged in the middle of me posting another reply (to the reef one that is now gone). Oye
DSB's are a very debated topic. If you have one you have to make sure that you keep it live. One good thing to do would be to get samples (swap a cup of good live sand from a friend or something like that) from various tanks to keep the diversity of life up in your tank...and to do this about once or twice a year.
A 2 inch would give you some bennefit, but would mostly be for looks IMO.
I have a 3 to 4 inch myself and haven't had any problems, but I am not sure if I would actually do that again. Only because I am just a little nervous about it crashing some day. I try my best to keep it nice and functioning with lots of fauna.

 

[thomas712]

You can also save alot of money if you can find the dry aragonite playsand, cure it your self and then use some livesand to seed it with. I used about 80 pounds in the main display and 120 in the refugium, so my DSB is a remote one that I can shut off in the event of disaster.

 

[cowfishrule]

Originally posted by Thomas712
A 10 gallon fuge on a 125 would be like a St Bernard trying to pet a frog. A 55 gallon fuge would work much better.
Thomas

 

[skiper gre]

I may have the term refuge tank wrong. The guy at the fish store where I purchased my tank was recommending setting up a small tank fed and returning to the sump with some grow lights and growing some sea weeds in. he says the sea weed would add a lot of extra filtration. What are your opinions on this?? If I only have room for ten gallons under the stand, this is with the pumps, skimmer timers ECT, is this a waste of time? And sorry for posting in two different places. Any more feedback on DSB what type of problems could it cause. When up and running I don’t want to worry too much and fairly simple maintenance.
Greg

 

[thedude]

cool a DSB in the refugium...now thats an interesting idea :thinking:

 

[benj2112]

Originally posted by skiper gre
I may have the term refuge tank wrong. The guy at the fish store where I purchased my tank was recommending setting up a small tank fed and returning to the sump with some grow lights and growing some sea weeds in. he says the sea weed would add a lot of extra filtration. What are your opinions on this?? If I only have room for ten gallons under the stand, this is with the pumps, skimmer timers ECT, is this a waste of time? And sorry for posting in two different places. Any more feedback on DSB what type of problems could it cause. When up and running I don’t want to worry too much and fairly simple maintenance.
Greg
Well, it doesn't have to go under the tank stand. I actually have my refuge/sump tank behind the tank and stand.
The macro algae (sea weeds...recommend chaetomorpha) is a way to export excess nutrients. You let it grow and then cut about half of it out and toss that (or sell/give to someone else) and let it grow some more.
The ten will also have th skimmer in it? Major problems with bubbles if that is the case IMO.
The problem with a DSB is if you don't keep it up it acts as a nutrient sponge and one day it can't absorb anymore and suddenly you get a ton of nutirents being re-released back into your tank and your water quality goes down the tubes till you get all that sand out.

 

[skiper gre]

the skimmer in in the sump. not my planed small fuge.