Southdown Playsand?

[Billy Clem]

I am putting together my second reef tank. I am using southdown as my sand bed. It is a AGA 75g tank with 150lbs of the sand. The tank has been running with sand only for about 2 months. My question is is that every time i move the sand the tank gets really really cloudy for at least 12 hours or so. Then it is marginally cloudy for a day or so. Will this cloudyness ever stop occuring and should I wait to put anything else in the tank? I have never used southdown before but have read numerous times that is the best for a dsb.

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback.
Billy

 

[ChrisRD]

Hi Billy and :welcome:

The cloudiness thing seems to get better in time with Southdown, but IME it's always somewhat of a problem.

FWIW, personally, after trying the DSB thing for a couple of years I was not convinced that there was any real benefit over past systems I had run with shallow sand beds, or no sand at all.

A couple of things I did NOT like about a Southdown DSB... ...I found it hard to get the flow I wanted in the tank without disturbing it (too powdery and fine). I also found when my Ca and Alk levels were up where they should be, that stuff had a tendency to clump.

JME...

 

[Billy Clem]

Thanks for the info Chris.
If I decide to switch out the southdown, I have some Fiji Pink....would this be a better sand to use?
Billy

 

[ChrisRD]

I think either one will provide some biological benefits, but many are still convinced that the super fine grained sands like Southdown are better for a DSB. I guess not being a big DSB guy anymore, I'm probably not the best person to ask about that...LOL. :wink:

IMO the clumping and clouding issues seem to be worse with a very fine grained sand like Southdown. If the Fiji stuff is a bit coarser you shouldn't have as much trouble in that regard.

Again, JMO/JME.

 

[romunov]

This article goes into details regarding sand and infauna.
It also drops a line on sand clumping I think Chris might find interesting.

 

[ChrisRD]

Yes, I've read Shimek's stuff (lots of it). It was part of the reason I wanted to experiment with a DSB - sounded very convincing. Having first hand experience with systems that do and do not have a DSB, IMO/IME many of his theories don't pan out in real life aquaria.