Sand Bed Question

[Lucent28]

Does anyone have any thoughts on what I should do for a sandbed? My tank is a 90gal reef with 20 gal sump/refuge. How deep should it be and what type of substrate should I use. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[FragMaster]

Personaly I would go with an aragonite base,and stay away from sand or oolite. The reason Iwould stayaway fromsand is the amount of sand sifters you have to have to keep it from compacting down is emense.
Also it dosent contribute anyting at all other than a denitrifaction bed just like an aragonite substrate. With anaragonite substrate you get the best of three worlds 1: denitrificationn bed, 2: helps to maintain calcium and ph balance, 3: more surface area for the denitrification process because it is less tightly packed.
Thats just my take on it.

Also when you consider how easily sand blows around when compared
to aragonite , aragonite looks like a much better choice if you need alot of flow.

 

[Anonymous]

I use South Down Sand mixed with Aragamax oolitic sand. the Aragamax is slightly bigger that the SDS. I do not have any compacting issues. I have good flow in my tank and once the flow pattern is set the sand creates some drifts, but does not stay suspended.

 

[ChrisRD]

What will be in the tank?

 

[Sponge_Bob]

I personnally use a mix of Aragonite reef grade sand and Arag-Alive sand, 50/50. No compaction problems that I can see. The Arag-Alive will seed your sand bed right off the bat, which is a good thing. By all means, don't understand by this that you will have an ACTIVE 100% efficient DSB from day 1. What I mean is that it will help speed up the process somewhat. Furthermore, if you decide to go with a DSB, a minimum of 3-4 inches is required. Also, avoid any sand burrowers or stirrers, for they feed off the bacteria and micro-organisms present in the sand, thus diminishing the efficiency of the denitrification potential of your sand bed. Also, by stirring up the sand, it introduces air into the sand bed which will kill your anaerobic bacteria resposible for denitrification.

HTH