Sand Bed Question

Well...as you know I got an established 135 tank over the weekend and set it up at my house.
One thing I noticed that was strange is the sand bed....the previous owner has like a 1'' sand bed in the tank...its low.

Is this ok to keep like this? Should I add more sand, if so....how does one go about doing that without making a huge mess? I have no problem taking all the rock out and putting it back it....but how do I get more sand in if I need to?

Should I go with live sand or seed some sand? What do you recommend for sand and where to get it also?

Thanks!

 

you will b fine with a shallow sand bed. its more personal preferance than anything. some ppl go bare bottom.if your looking for more filtration a deep sand bed may be wat ur lookn for 4inches plus. but it is by no means nessasary

 

1" is fine if you don't want a deep sand bed. (DSB) If you wanted to add more sand go get some from the store (non-live variety; the sand in your tank is already "live"). Put the sand in a pillow case and dump RO/DI water over it, this will remove a lot of the fine silt and powder. Then take your rocks out, dump it in, spread it around, and put your rocks back. It'll be cloudy for a day or two.

Crushed aragonite is a good sand to get.

 

What are you trying to accomplish? A decorative sand bed like yours is easily cleaned with a vacuum but it does not support much bacteria to help with nitrate removal. The opposite, a deep sand bed, should not be cleaned with a vacuum or stirred up except maybe to a depth of 1/4" and then only in small sections, but supports lots of bacteria and critters.

I prefer the DSB myself but for someone just starting out a decorative sandbed may be easier to learn with and more forgiving as far as cleaning and maintenance since it an be vacuumed of algae and detritus. You might start shallow and add sand at a later date once the system has had time to reestablish itself. As for adding sand to an existing system, I use a piece of 2" PVC pipewith a large funnel taped on the end. I place the end close to the bottom and pour slowly mving the pipe around to fill in low spots. I use dry aragonite or calcium sand and do not rinse it since the fines are necessary for best bacteria growth in a fully functioning DSB, the finer the better.

 

So the deeper the sand bed, the less nitrates you will have? I currently have really high nitrates in this tank and need to so weekly water changes to get them down.
When I do these weekly water changes should I sift through the sand that is there to get a good cleaning?

I just want to do what is best for the tank. I have live rock and about 6-7 fish in it now, I eventually want to add soft corals maybe hard someday, but want to get the nitrates down before i do anything!
Thanks!

 

A functioning deep sand bed needs to be 3 to 5" deep or deeper, my 100G system has 330 lbs of Southdown which averages 5" deep. The combination of that, 160 lbs of live Kaelini rock and macroalgaes like cheatomorpha in the sump/refugium keep my nitrates undetectable.

Sand less than 2" deep can be stirred and vacuumed since it does not support facultative or anaerobic bacteria (oxygen deprived) which live deep in the sand or deep in porous live rock. More cured live rock would also help if you don't have much now, up to maybe 2lbs per gallon depending on how dense the rock is. i prefer lighter, porous rock myself as it has more internal space for colonizing bacteria to live, kind of like a sponge.

A deep sand bed should not be disturbed to any depth since it will expose these oxygen starved bacteria to oxygenated water and cause toxic conditions.

There are other methods like sulfur denitrators but I prefer natural myself so use the sand, rock and macros. You will also want a good protein skimmer if you do not already have one so it pulls out waste and excess food before they break down and contribute to the nitrate and water quality problems.