what type of sand? how deep? how do you like it? any advantages to different colors or is it just preference? why do some advise and some disagree with crushed coral? is it true that more course sand has more surface for benificial bacteria to live?

- Aragonite
- >1" in all places
- Preference
- Crushed coral can/will trap detritus, which will decompose and release dissolved nutrients. This can be a problem if you don't have a functional nutrient export regime.
- No, finer sand must have more surface area.

i have sand box sand consistency i live it have great organisms in it i love it. fine sand can have sand storms if ur putting coral and need a power head and hold gases(not good) crushed coral get bacteria trapped in it and looks ugly and very hard to clean and things decay no recommended i have one with crushed coral ass well not happy with it go with sand box sand consistancy

CaribSea Fiji Pink sand, 1 -1.5 inches deep
Crushed coral traps too much deterius. Your live rock will have more than enough surface area for bacteria. IMO...use the finest sand you can get away with.

when i was given my tank it was filled with big chunks of rubble and CC and LS. i added a few large LR to it and took out a lot of rubble and CC... its a lot more clean looking without all the broken branches all over. im slowly still removing all of it...

-Mostly aragonite. There are a few handfuls of crushed coral and finer sand mixed in, but mostly your standard issue Carib-sea aragonite.
-Average an inch. Less than that in the open areas, more than that around the base of the rocks.
-I like it alot, I've experimented with pretty much everything and all of my tanks now have this kind of mix.
-crushed coral traps too much waste. Sand keeps it on top. Ive even switched to sand from gravle in my FW tanks.
-Finer sand = more surface area, because you get a higher grain count per a given volume compared to larger pieces of sand. Just like with live rock rubble compared to live rock.

so if i wanted to get rid of the crushed coral in my sandbed should i just keep picking it out during water changes? or shoud i put my water, shrimp, goby, rocks in a bucket, scoop out old and put in aragonite? my tank would cycle if i did this wont it?

You could use a large hose and siphon out the crushed coral.

You could clean it well and scoop it out. (this will likely cause a amonia spike and following cycle.

Removing everything and siphoning out the majority of water into buckets would work best IMO.
clean the new sand well before putting it in your tank and you should have little effect as far as cycling goes from the change. Possibly a small spike but it would pass very quickly with fully cured rock.

Personally I use CaribSea Fiji pink (sugar ish size particles i forget the actual size range) 3-5 in bed depending on where my goby has built hills.

Depends on how old it is.

Sand is gross. Painted barebottom.


To remove your crushed coral, you should use a gravel vac to siphon an area before removing it. That will minimize the disturbance and nutrient release. Take out a small amount at a time with your water changes over a course of a month - two or more if you have a deeper sand bed (ie" more than a couple inches).

If you're planning to replace the sand, then now you can add some (dead) sand. Don't bother with livesand. The LR will seed it.

what about all my "buggies" as my GF calls them. the pods and all... i got a bunch of tiger pods in there and other little creature.

Their numbers will be hurt alot by doing this but you grew em out in the first place.. they weill repopulate in time again.

i think i will just do as mentioned and gravelvac debris from a strip at a time and pick out all CC by hand. PITA but woth while in the end. that will probably be less detrimental to my pod population as well.

Aragonite... I'd give you a depth. Used to be 1.5 inches, but my tiger pistol has rescaped it so that in some places there's little to no sand and in others, there's a 3 inch pile.

I like a ~2" sandbed. Currently I have Tahitian Black Moon Sand. Love how it looks, but i would not recommend it... It gets easily caught in the pad of my mag float and WILL NOT come out (becuase the sand is so fine) also it does not aid in keeping a good pH for marine tanks (although a good, stable pH can be obtained, it is still hard).

All in all go with aragonite.

3/4" deep, Aragonite. Sifted out all the larger pieces by using a regular old fish net, so now I have around 1 mm size sand.

so would a complete replacement be better for my tank then.... just go with aragonite?

Yes and yes.

Dry aragonite, "dead sand". LS will cause you a cycle.

how does the already living stuff cause a cycle and the non living stuff not? it seems that if somthing is established it would not cycle. but thats not the case.

and your saying that if i just siphon out my stuff and save my old water in a buck to replace after sand swap everything will be fine? my pods will come back too?

sorry if i seem redundant i just want to make sure it all goes fine when the day comes. probably this weekend.


im gonna be a busy boy. gotta build my fuge (ac70) paint the back of tank and swap sand. the rock and old water should have enough leftover bacteria so i shouldnt need any cycle or anything like that right

"Cycle" here needs some definition. Generally, "cycle" refers to the establishment of the nitrogen cycle in a newly built system. The organisms that mediate it grow and die in an oscillatory-type pattern until equilibrium is reached. This encompasses other nutrient cycles as well, but the N-cycle is the one that people test for. This sort of cycle is inherent to any new system and is a natural part of it's development.

The "cycle" that you might experience by removing/replacing your substrate isn't this way. It may or may not include the nitrogen cycle and it is cause by you perturbing the system that is already in place. If you add in "dead" substrate that has no nutrients/organisms in it, the perterbation is less.



Depending on your def of "fine", but yes.

very nicely put. so then saturday i got a job ahead of me. when my water and rock and gobie and shrimp are in the bucket i should keep the water airated right? just a simple air stone?

If they'll only be in there for an hour or two, you won't need to aerate. I would be more concerned about keeping the bucket at a proper temp.

Aeration wouldn't hurt anything, though.

to be honest i never had a heater on this tank
but im putting one in my fuge im building this weekend....
i only have a few shrooms and a goby and a shrimp. i think they will be fine for a few hours. when they get back to their home though they will be most excited of the new renovations.... that or freaked out.