Sand Question?

[jrc6490]

Hi everyone bought some sand today for my soon to start FOWLR tank. Its a 55 Gallon, i was wondering how much sand i will need? i bought a 30 pound bag of CaribSea Aragonite and have included a picture is this what im wanting or should i get something else? how many inches deep do i want the sand to be?

 

[speg]

Well a deeper sand bed will offer you better filtration.. so keep that in mind.
2-3 inches sounds pretty good to me.
I don't know the exact poundage you'll be needing... but in my 36 gallon bowfront I ended up putting 40lbs of live sand. I actually thought several times that it could use more.
In my 12 gallon nano I have about 8-10 lbs.

 

[tur4k]

This seems to be a topic of great debate. There are advantages and disadvantages to having a deep sand bed. You should probably do some reading on the subject.
I personally went with a fairly shallow sand bed. Just enough to cover the glass in the back behind my rock and about 2 inches in front of the rock. Just enough for my burrowers to burrow.

 

[spanko]

You will need approximately 50 pounds of sand
to achieve a 2 inch depth in a 48.25 x 12.75 inch tank
which are the dimensions of a standard 55 gallon tank.

 

[starfishprime]

That sand will do, but it didn't specify whether it was 'live' or not. Now you don't have to completely fill your tank with 'live' sand because that is just not realistic money wise, but I would add a little with live rock to help get the cycle going. As for how much you should use, it varies really. I have a 38 gal. setup that came with 80lbs of sand (60 reg. sand, 20 'live' sand), I did not use all of it, it was way too much I only used maybe 40lbs reg. sand and the whole bag of 'live' sand. There are 'rules' but unless your looking for a DSB, SSB in particular I would do whatever suits you best.