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Live sand....how much shoud I use

Y

ynotme4886

How much live sand would you use in a 65gal tank.
I am in the process of upgrading from a 54 corner to a 65 gal reef ready(3ft long version)

It will start out as a fish only setup. May eventually add a few corals.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

welcome to NJRC!

The amount of sand used depends on several factors.

Most people utilize sand for dual purposes -aesthetics (i.e. preference over a bare bottom) or actual filtration (a bed of sand that can help with the nitrogen cycle).

If it's option 1...the answer is - however much you think looks nice. For aesthetics I might try 1~2 inches - enough that a fish or PH won't expose the bottom.

If it's option 2 - that's trickier. The DSB, if not maintained with appropriate critters to keep the be turned and aerated can result in a big nutrient sink (think mud). While this will be fine for a year or several, eventually it will cake and can lead to messy results. I am not a DSB expert, nor would I know how many serpent stars, cerith/nassarius snails/conches etc. are needed in a 65 gallon tank.

Personally I'd just go the aethestics way -enough to keep a goby happy if you're thinking of a pistol/goby pairing.
 
Y

ynotme4886

I have 3 small angelfish and a pair of clownfish and am not planning on adding any fish after the switch. There are 3 peppermint shrimp, a choc chip starfish, 3 huge turbo snails, 2 conchs (dont remember what kind)and who knows how many nass snails hidden under my current sand bed plus 2 emerald crabs somewhere in the live rock (saw one eating this afternoon) I currently have about 100lbs + of live rock and am getting another 100lbs with the new tank setup

I dont really want a deep sand bed and am going to be using a wet/dry underneath with a large hang on fuge on the back of the tank. (the fuge is currently on the corner tank and is full of little green critters living in the macro algae) I am also going to use a canister filter for carbon and to propel my u/v unit and my chiller.

As for sand I was thinking just enough to hide the sand snails but I cant seem to figure out how many lbs that would be.
 
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